


Mirror, Mirror, Tell Me That You Love Me

by tyun_gyu



Series: run away with me underneath this blue hour [1]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beomgyu just wants some thrill in his life, Beomgyu might develop a fear of mirrors lmao, Beomgyu screams alot, Crack, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Kang Taehyun Is So Done, M/M, Romantic Comedy, Semi-Horror, Taehyun just wants to have some fun, Taehyun loves making fun of him, Whipped Choi Beomgyu, goddamit yeonjun, minor yeonbin, the other bois are confused, yeonbin appears later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 47,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23855017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyun_gyu/pseuds/tyun_gyu
Summary: This is what he gets for wishing for something thrilling to come into his life.The mirror isn't really talking to him at all... right?
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Series: run away with me underneath this blue hour [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078262
Comments: 91
Kudos: 365





	1. Who are you?

Beomgyu can now say that he is the luckiest man in the world.

Life is going so well for Beomgyu that he thinks that the whole universe loves him that much. He's got everything that he needs but that just means that it makes his life boring, easily getting whatever he wants when he asks for it. He really needs some thrill in his life.

He just recently bought a wall body mirror at a thrift shop for just 5,000 won! How cheap is that?! He expects the mirror to have some cracks or burns or anything that makes it look like it is damaged but surprisingly, he found none. The mirror looks surprisingly new but looks very old fashioned with it's gold ornate baroque frame.

The mirror has some kind of white tape on it's back with a weird red pattern which made him want to tear him off but the owner managed to tear the mirror away from his hands and warns him to never ever and he means ever, take off the tape. Beomgyu just nods dumbly.

The owner of the thrift shop was so persistent in selling him the mirror which made him think that the owner really wanted to get rid of the mirror that badly. He ended up buying it since the owner even offered to sell it for just 1,000 won but he paid him 5,000 won and dragged the mirror all the way to his dorm room.

Beomgyu propped it up against the wall in his bedroom facing his bed since he still isn't sure where to hang the mirror. He is still confused why the owner wanted to get rid of the mirror but hey, he got it for a really really cheap price so he can't really complain about it.

But there is something that he guesses that might be the reason why the owner wanted to get rid of the mirror.

For some reason, the mirror kind of gives a weird... creepy vibe, almost as if Beomgyu was being watched by the mirror. He doesn't remember being this creeped out by mirrors and doesn't even remember feeling scared whenever he goes to the bathroom and checks himself out on the mirror so it's most likely that there is really something going on with the baroque mirror he just bought. He checked the mirror to see if it has some camera attached for some freaky pervert to spy on him but he found none, meaning that there is no camera to make him feel that he was watched.

It's just the mirror.

'What if the mirror is cursed?' he thinks as he stares at the mirror which seemed to stare back at him or so he thinks, 'Maybe that's why the owner wanted to get rid of it. The mirror is evil and something is in there that wants to kill him!"

...

Pfft.

Beomgyu laughs hard at the thought, feeling stupid. Is he really that bored to think that something is going on with the mirror? He must be crazy! He must really be in need of a thrill because he is thinking of scary stuff like that.

His friends, Yeonjun, Soobin, and Huening Kai came over later in the afternoon to hang out with him and he took the chance to show him his brand new mirror in his room. Yes, he says that there is nothing wrong with the mirror and he is just imagining it but there's no harm in seeing if other people feel creeped out by the mirror too, right?

The moment Huening Kai stepped into his room and laid his eyes on the mirror, he immediately ran out and stayed outside by the doorframe, saying that the mirror is somehow looking deep into his soul like it was judging him.

Soobin says that he feels weirded out by the mirror too and says that he should get rid of it while Yeonjun tells them that they are just overreacting and it's just a mirror, there's nothing wrong with it but Beomgyu could see his eyes shaking and the way he moves just so he wouldn't accidentally glance at the mirror.

Even his pet bird, Toto, seems to be creeped out by the said mirror. The parrot would say some weird things like "idiot" or "boo" and he didn't even taught him those words. Toto would stare at the mirror for a few seconds and then immediately start squawking and flying out of his room in fear.

Beomgyu is relieved that he's not the only one weirded out by the mirror.

Two hours later, his friends waved goodbye to him and left his dorm which just leaves him, Toto, and the mysterious mirror. He stomps up towards his bedroom and points at the mirror.

"I don't know why you're being so creepy and I know that this isn't just some crazy thought in my head, but you need to stop being so weird and creepy!" he commands as if the mirror would listen and obey him like a loyal dog. The mirror gives him a feeling like he's being mocked and that irked him.

He sighs and scratches the back of his head, "I'm being ridiculous, this is just a mirror. Pull yourself together, Beomgyu!" he then slaps both of his cheeks at the same time to snap himself out though he feels that the mirror is making fun of him.

Even though he moved that thought to the back of his head, the feeling of being watched and criticized by the mirror is still lingering on his skin but he still doesn't make a move to throw it away because he says that it's all in his head.

The mirror seemed to be watching his every move and he feels as if the mirror was silently judging him with his poor decision-making skills and his choice of clothes everyday and that whenever he misplaces something and is currently flipping his bedroom upside down to find that specific object, he couldn't help but feel that the mirror was making fun of him and mocking of him which is ridiculous because well, it's just a mirror. He managed to grow annoyed because of that rather than getting even more scared.

Because of the mirror, he started to sleep on the couch at the living room because he fears that if he spends more time in his room, then he would go insane. The couch isn't the most comfiest place he had ever slept in and he prefers the bed but he can handle this, he doesn't want to go insane. He's Choi Beomgyu for fuck's sake, he can handle this.

One day, he finally says that he had enough of the non-existent judging and mocking stares of the mirror. People can go and call him crazy or whatever but no one is stopping him from covering the mirror with a clean sheet. He can finally stop the feeling of being judged when he checks himself out, stop the feeling of being watched and mocked when he wanks, and can finally stop the feeling of being laughed at when he accidentally trips and injures himself. He thought that it would stop there.

But it didn't.

The mirror still managed to torment him day and night despite being covered and it drives Beomgyu to the brink of insanity. It feels like the feeling grew ten times worst than before. He couldn't stay in the room for more than one minute without feeling very uncomfortable. Ever since he covered the mirror with the cloth, he never stepped foot inside his bedroom. It's like the mirror owned his bedroom now!

One day, he had enough and decided to go to his bedroom and brave the mirror. He'll just take off the cloth and the mirror would still be weird and creepy but it'd be less than now and it won't do him any harm... right?

Nope, scratch that. He isn't going to uncover it.

Beomgyu flops down on his bed and instantly buries himself under the covers and shuts his eyes, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that is weighed down on him but no matter how uncomfortable it is, he managed to ignore the feeling and the mirror altogether for a while. Just when he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly feels as if the room is suffocating him and he can't breathe properly. He bolts up from his position and breathes in and out, trying to calm himself down before snapping his head towards the covered mirror and glaring at it.

He is really tired of this bullshit.

He stomps towards the covered mirror and rips the sheets off it, throwing it to the ground.

"Oh my god, stop fucking torturing me and let me sleep, you're just a fucking mirror, why do you suddenly have the ability to torment me?!" he screams, ignoring how his loud voice would wake up his neighbors. He couldn't care anymore, not when his sanity is slowly breaking and not when he is sleep-deprived.

The mirror looks at him as if it was making fun of him, which is silly because all he sees is his reflection but Beomgyu can feel it, he can feel it's mocking stares.

He grits his teeth in irritation, "I had enough of this, it's time to put an end to this," he yells and the mirror gives him a feeling that says "and what can you do about it, idiot?"

"Oh, I have something I can do," he chuckles darkly at his reflection. If someone were to see him like this, they would have thought that he was mental and would have put him in a mental hospital. Luckily, it was just him in his room, "I'm going to find a hammer and destroy you and you can no longer torment me!" he laughs in an exaggerated villain-like voice while the mirror just gives him an unimpressed feeling.

He continues laughing as he walks away from the mirror to find a hammer only to trip on the sheet that is on the floor which sends him to the ground, hitting the left side of his head on the baroque frame. He failed to notice his blood that got on the frame from his fall to be sucked up clean by the mirror.

"Ah shit, is this your way of getting revenge?" he hisses, still on the ground as he rubs his aching hand, only to look at his hand and see a little bit of blood, "If that's so, then you're an ass."

"This is practically your fault so I don't really see how I'm an ass."

Beomgyu's eyes widened and he immediately shrieks, crawling backwards with such speed that can beat cheetahs and hitting his back on the wooden bed frame with a loud thud. He looks up to find a person– an actual person– inside the mirror, currently covering his mouth in an attempt to stop himself from laughing.

The guy inside the mirror looked quite young– much younger than him perhaps. The boy's hair was fluffy and neatly styled, his hair parted at the right side of his face that exposed a small bit of his forehead. The boy's eyes were like his hair, a dark hazelnut brown which seemed to stare directly into his soul. The boy was wearing some kind of black suit with a dark blue polo shirt underneath it paired with a yellow tie. He is wearing a black fedora to match with his outfit which made Beomgyu confused– isn't he supposed to be a demon? Why does he look like he's going to some fancy party– and he looks hella handsome.

He was in awe of the boy's visuals but he soon forgot them when he realized there was a literal living being– he still can't say if it's really a human or a demon– inside the mirror.

"Who-who the fuck are you?!" he yells, not taking his eyes off the unfairly handsome young man inside the mirror.

The man sighs before smirking, "I know that I'm too handsome for you to handle, but you really need to tone your voice down."

"I SAID WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

"You are quite a noisy idiot," the man rubs his forehead in irritation, "I'm Taehyun, the man in the mirror, happy now?"

"Wh-what-what-what–" Beomgyu repeats like a mantra, unable to form another sentence. His doesn't know if it's because he hit his head too hard on the frame or it's because his brain is completely fried because of the sudden appearance of the young man in front if him.

"Not gonna introduce yourself? Rude. Well, I already know a lot of things about you," the man– Taehyun– says as he brings up a digit each time he says a fact about Beomgyu, "You are Choi Beomgyu, currently 19 years old, you are currently in need of a girlfriend or maybe a boyfriend if we base on the videos you wank off to, you are terrible in making decisions and an idiot. Tell if I'm wrong."

"D-demon!" was all what Beomgyu managed to say.

Taehyun huffs in annoyance, "I thought that you were smart but it seems that you can't say more than one word. Anyways, I'm not a demon. I don't have horns nor a spiky tail nor huge wings."

"And how am I supposed to believe you huh?! Mirror freak!" he yells as he tried to push himself backwards because he thinks of he could just push himself even more, maybe he'll become one with the bed frame.

"I have been cursed, that's why I'm inside this mirror and one thing about my curse is that I cannot lie, I can only say the truth," he says in a matter-of-fact tone, amused that the person in front of him is quivering in fear, "Also, thanks for falling down. It was hard for me to make fun of you without you even seeing me."

"Oh right– wait, how am I seeing you know?! I never saw you even once before I tripped!" he screams even louder which prompted Taehyun to cover his ears.

"Ugh, just because I'm in the mirror doesn't mean I can't hear you clearly, use your damn indoor voice!" he scolds him with annoyance and the blonde immediately purses his mouth shut, "Anyways, you tripped and got some of your blood on me which made me see you. If there's one thing I know, people started to see me once they give me something that has their DNA on it."

"DNA?"

"Yes, like your blood. I was hoping that you'd accidentally flick some saliva on me everytime you fog up the mirror and draw a heart after checking yourself out, no matter how gross that sounds," Taehyun smirks when he sees Beomgyu turn red at his response, "Or maybe your semen since you liked yanking your chain but recently, you've been facing away from the mirror everytime you get off so it wasn't that fun."

If you think Beomgyu couldn't get even redder, then you're wrong. He looks so red that you'd think he has a fever, "Pervert! Why would you look at me while I'm doing my duties?!" he yells in a voice that he managed to tone down so that his neighbors wouldn't hear him. He doesn't want anyone to wake up in the middle of the night and ask him who he's talking to only to find no one.

"Well, it's your fault for facing towards the mirror while you were getting off," the boy in the suit shrugs.

"I didn't even know that there is actually someone in the mirror!"

Taehyun leans at the mirror frame, checking his nails as if it is the most interesting thing in the whole world right now, "Still, it's weird to be facing the mirror when you jerk off. Do you want to watch yourself jerk off that bad?"

Heat travels through every part of Beomgyu's body as he splutters at the trapped man's response, "A-Anyways, how did you get stuck inside the mirror?" he asks, trying to change the topic. He's sure that he'll die if Taehyun continues talking about his 'manly needs'.

"Someone trapped me inside."

"Obviously! I mean, how'd you get trapped inside the mirror?"

"Someone put a curse on me and now I'm here."

"What did you do?"

"You really like asking questions, don't ya?" Taehyun yawns, quite bored of the topic that Beomgyu chose, "Anyways, can you be a good Samaritan and rip off the white tape behind the mirror? It ruins the golden beauty of the mirror."

Beomgyu immediately shakes his head, "I'm not dumb enough to get close to you nor dumb enough to peel off something suspicious! If I peel it off, then you'd be able to get out, am I right?"

The boy sighs as he leans his back on the probably invisible wall behind him as he puts his hands behind his head to rest it, "What a pain, thought I had hit the jackpot of having an idiot buy me."

"You said that you can't tell lies so why are you avoiding my question? You even avoided my other question! And I'm not an idiot!"

"Just because I said that I can only tell the truth doesn't mean I have to answer all your questions. I can also twist my words so you won't even know if I'm telling the truth," he smirks before leaning away from the invisible wall behind him and walks towards Beomgyu before stopping a few meters away, "But I was able to call you an idiot, right? That means you really are an idiot so I'm going to continue calling you that."

Beomgyu gasps, offended at what Taehyun said. The bastard has some balls to talk to him like that. He's inside the mirror yet he's being irritating.

"It's already 11PM, aren't you going to sleep?" Taehyun suddenly asks, voice soothing and filled with concern as he looked at Beomgyu with worry in his eyes which made his heart stop a beat for a second.

Why is the boy suddenly being worried about him? Beomgyu squints his eyes as he stares at the boy in front of him intensely, suspicious, "Why are you asking me that kind of question?"

Taehyun chuckles before tilting his head in a seemingly innocent way, "Aren't you sleep deprived, Beomgyu? You have been sleeping in the living room for quite a while now and you keep complaining about your back hurting so I'm worried about you!" he says in an overly sweet way which makes him think that the boy is being sarcastic, even throw in an exaggerated action to top it off.

The boy still has a really suspicious smile on his face, head still tilted to the side. If not for the fact that the boy got cursed for something he did that was totally bad, he'd found him cute. Maybe flirt with–

No! You cannot just flirt with a demon in the mirror! Even if he says that he isn't a demon, he might have done something evil which still equals to him being a demon!

But Taehyun is right, he is sleep deprived and really wants to get some sleep on his soft, comfy, fluffy bed and not the hard ass hell couch (he'd have to buy another couch soon).

No! Taehyun might do something to him while he is asleep! If Taehyun was unable to do something to him when he was still unable to see him, then maybe he can do something to him now that he can see him! The thought of that terrifies Beomgyu.

"Come on, answer me. Why are you being so suspicious?" he says, eyes still full of suspicion as he kept his gaze at him, still squinting.

Taehyun stared at him with a blank expression for a while before looking down and scratching the back of his head, sitting down on the invisible floor and sighing, "I figured that if I'd be buddy buddy with you and gain your trust, I can get you to tear off the seal at the back since you're an idiot."

"Guess you're right," he started to say but closes his mouth when Taehyun suddenly laughs. He looks at him in confusion before before realizing what he said and splutters, "I mean that you are right about the buddy buddy thing and the sleeping thing but not the idiot thing!"

"That still means that you're an idiot," the other snorts but the blonde was still busy rambling.

"But even if you're right, I'm not going to sleep yet! I will keep an eye on you and stop you from doing evil things!" he points his finger at the boy as he hopped on his feet, proud that he managed to maintain his balance despite his shaking legs.

Taehyun lets out a smug smile, "Or you're not going to sleep because you'd go out and take a shower, check yourself out in the mirror, watch some porn, try to get yourself off by staring at the mirror, fail to do so and then go to sleep," he cackles loudly when Beomgyu lets out the third loudest shriek this night as the boy turns red for the nth time.

"Pervert! Pervert!" he says in horror, his finger that is pointing at the laughing man shaking in terror, "You perverted freak!"

"I'm not a pervert," the other replies, now calm and collected as if he didn't have a laughing fit earlier, "But I've been inside this mirror for like 100 years, entertainment is so hard to come by so I'll just have to watch you doing embarrassing things."

"You are still a pervert!"

"Again, I'm not a pervert," he says again calmly then smirks, face morphing into a seductive hungry look, "But I can be one if you want me to," he teases, jokingly looks down at Beomgyu's shorts so that the dumbfounded blonde would get it.

And so, Beomgyu shrieks again as he runs out of his room with a bright red face in full speed, crashing into a couple of things before finally reaching the door and slamming it shut, leaving behind a loud cackling Taehyun.

This is what he gets for wishing for some kind of thrill to happen in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a fic that i couldnt help publishing (im still writing another fic that i am very excited in publishing but i decided to make myself suffer and post this ㅠㅠ)
> 
> i hope you guys enjoy this since i'm kind of having doubts and think that this sucks because i'm still playing around with different writing styles.


	2. It feels nice when you smile.

Beomgyu thinks that he's gone mad.

That's the only reason he could think of as to why he is now seeing a handsome young man in a suit inside his mirror that seems to be laughing and making fun of everything he does and says.

It's been three weeks ever since he saw the man in the mirror and weeks since he stepped inside his bedroom. He thinks that he was just imagining Taehyun- oh my god, he even gave him a name- and that everything is just a figment of his imagination because he was sleep deprived.

But still, he's afraid to go inside of his room. It's because of that damned mirror.

Sometimes, while he was in his living room chilling or doing something totally unimportant, he could hear Taehyun's loud voice and he would scream and cover his ears, afraid that he's just gonna have to admit himself to a mental hospital because now he's hearing voices.

Right now, he's standing infront of his bedroom door, swearing bullets. He wanted to watch "He is Psychometric" in his laptop and all the episodes were inside his flashdrive. The problem is, his flashdrive is inside his room, on top of his desk and in order to get it, he has to get inside his room and pass the mirror.

He wanted to turn around and do something else that doesn't involve in going inside his room but as tempting as it sounds, he has nothing else interesting to do and he'd really die out of boredom if he doesn't get to watch the drama. He could just search the drama on his laptop but the dorm's wifi is wack and it would take him a thousand years to finish a single episode.

And so, he has to be brave.

"You can do this, Beomgyu," he assures himself, jumping up and down in his place to get himself fired up, "He's just a figment of your imagination, don't worry about it, buddy."

"I can hear you outside, idiot," a voice inside of his room says and he visibly stills but immediately snapped out of it.

"He's not real, he's not real, you're just imagining it, yeah," he says as he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath and slapping his cheeks.

"You are really an idiot," the voice says again.

"I'M GOING IN!" he yells as he opens the door and barges inside the room, screaming with his eyes closed as he runs around his room. While he was running, his feet gets caught by the sheet he once covered the mirror with that is still on the floor which sent him to the ground yet again. This time, he hit his head on the ground and luckily, his head didn't bleed.

Beomgyu sits up, groaning in pain as he gently pats his aching head, feeling a wave of deja vu wash over him. He looks at the mirror to see a pair of shiny black shoes and slowly trails his eyes up to meet the same man in a suit that has a smile plastered on his face, satisfied to see his misfortune.

"You... you're really there," Beomgyu says and swallows since he felt his throat go dry at the sight of the man infront of him. He keeps rubbing his eyes, still not believing that he is real.

Taehyun rolls his eyes as he crosses his hands infront of his chest, "Well, duh. You keep denying my existence and ignored me for what three weeks? I'm as real as you are."

"Shut up, I was really scared of you the first time I saw you. My act of running away is justified because who else wouldn't run away upon seeing a person show up in your mirror?" he retorts as he lifts his legs up to remove the sheet underneath him and begins to fold it. This sheet gave him so many misfortunes.

"I was really scared of you," Taehyun mocks, repeating what he said in a much higher voice and Beomgyu lets out an annoyed sigh, knowing that he just popped a vein. He now remembers that night with the brat as clear as day and knows that this isn't just something he just made up with his imagination. Hell, he wouldn't imagine a scenario with a clearly handsome guy being such a brat to him.

"But really, wow... an actual person inside of my mirror, that's kind of amazing," he says in awe as he places the folded sheet on top of his bed.

"Oh, now you are amazed after screaming your head off. Bravo, Beomgyu. Bravo," the boy says in a sarcastic voice, sarcastically clapping at his achievement.

Beomgyu hits the mirror frame in irritation and Taehyun just grins annoyingly at him while sticking his tongue out in a childish way.

"Now I see why you're stuck in there, it's because you were such a brat," he hisses which made the brunette smirk at him.

"You really think so? Thieves don't even get trapped inside the mirror no matter how much they steal and you think pushing someone's buttons is enough for me to be cursed?" he hums as he places his chin on his hand and looks up as if he was thinking hard, "I was quite a respected and well-known person back then."

"Then let me hear your story, tell me why you got stuck in there," Beomgyu says before standing up and making his way to the door.

"You expect me to tell you my past while you leave me _again_?"

Beomgyu flinches when he hears something similar to hurt in Taehyun's words but shrugs it off, "I'm just closing the door. You got abandonment issues or something?" he asks as he closes the door and locks at before making his way to sit on the bed facing the mirror.

"Try living inside a mirror for 500 hundred years, let'a see if you develop abandonment issues," the other says coldly before sitting down on the floor and bringing his legs up to his chest. Taehyun is small, he knows that. He's even taller than the boy in the mirror but the way the boy brings his legs up to his chest makes him look even smaller and that makes him a bit guilty.

"Sorry, that was a very stupid question to ask," he apologizes, guilty because of what he said. Taehyun might be cursed for something bad that he did but it doesn't mean that he can just hurt his feelings, he's a human too.

"A stupid question from a very dumb person," the boy says, looking up to meet his eyes sees Beomgyu frown. He smiles a bit because of the blonde's reaction and Beomgyu feels the guilt inside him disappearing, "Alright, idiot. What do you want to know about me?"

"Your past," Beomgyu answers quickly, "I want to know what you did to be put in there."

The boy gives him a look that says "really" and laughs at him, "I thought that you'd ask me some kind of interesting question but okay, I'll tell you," he nods in reply, excited but yet anxious to hear about his past.

"So, 500 years ago when I was still able to walk around the earth, I was my town's prized and respected magician. Check this out," he grins as takes out a stack of cards out of his pocket and plays with the cards for a bit, flicking the cards to his right hand then his left hand which amazed Beomgyu.

Beomgyu's eyes widened and sparkled at his talent "Woah, that's awesome," he whispers as his eyes followed the cards. Taehyun feels his pride get bigger and happiness form inside of him, happy that someone praised him.

He flicks the cards to his left hand one last time and puts it back inside his pocket and continues talking, "My parents didn't support me or anything, they didn't like it that their son is doing magic out on the streets instead of helping them out at the bakery. I earned a lot of money though because of the curious audiences that I had, I was the only magician in the whole town."

"Aside from doing magic, I also loved to sing and people would pay me to sing at their bars and inns. Kids would follow me whenever they saw me and crowd around me and tell me to sing or show them magic. They were the only ones I left my services free. Do you know the story of the Pied Piper? I was like that guy, except I used my voice and I didn't lead children away from town- I even existed before that story was even created!" Taehyun giggles as he looks up, reminiscing those precious moments. Beomgyu looks at him and smiles fondly. Who knew that this supposedly evil boy has a sweet side inside him?

"There was this one girl, only 9 years old," Taehyun continues, now looking at his hands with a sad smile on his face, "She was a frail and weak child. Her parents didn't want her going out of their house because she easily gets sick but despite that, she still manages to escape just to come and see me do magic or hear me sing. Her parents always scolded her and tell me that I'm practicing dark magic when all I did was just play with cards."

"Wait wait..." Beomgyu says as he raises his hand up, realization dawning on me.

Taehyun is a magician. A kid always goes to where he is despite her parents' refusal. The girl always escapes just to see him. Beomgyu's face paled as he looked at Taehyun in horror, who just looked at him in confusion.

He stands up and points an accussing finger at him, "You committed an unforgiveable sin!"

Taehyun looks at him with a blank 'are-you-kidding-me' face, "I didn't even get to the juicy part but okay, tell me your dumb idea."

"You took advantage of a 9 year old kid! You horny bastard, taking advantage of an innocent child who just wanted to see you play with cards and sing!" he roars in anger, huffing and puffing while the boy just facepalms.

"Sit down, you fucking imbecile," he glares and the blonde immediately sits down, also glaring at him, "And no, I didn't. As sad as this sounds, I was cursed inside this mirror a virgin and haven't even kissed a single person in my whole entire life."

He is suddenly happy, "Oh!"

"Anyways, this kid kept finding me and I even told her to stop seeking me out because her parents keep getting angry at me and they think that their daughter is being brainwashed by a demonic card monster," he laughs as he buries his face on his thighs, "Now that I think of it, she was just like you. She was an idiot too, she did a lot of dumb things back then to see me."

"Hey! I'm not an idiot and I'm not doing anything dumb to see you!"

"Yeah right, the only difference that both of you have is that you don't like me and don't want to see me. You did a lot of dumb things too like dancing to some girl group song in just your underwear infront of the mirror. What song was it again? Signal bonae, signal bonae, jjirit jjirit jjirit jjirit," Taehyun mimics the dance move that Beomgyu did and the boy screamed for him to stop, "And I could never forgot that time you tried to impersonate a duck and waddled around your room saying waeng waeng waeng," he says in a nasally tone and the blonde's face went into a darker shade of red.

"Oh my fucking god, did you really see me do all of that?"

"Yep."

"Every. Single. One. Of. Them?"

Taehyun stands up and puts both of his hands to his side, positioning his hands so that his palms were facing the floor and his fingers are pointing the opposite way of his body, "Waeng, waeng, waeng," he says in a nasally voice and waddles around his spot.

Beomgyu screams yet again and this time he wonders why no one had knocked on his door yet and told him to shut up, "Oh my god- stop it! Holy fuck, please just- just continue your story!" he managed to say, covering his red face in embarrassment as Taehyun sits down on the floor again with a smug smile on his face.

"One day, she got sick," he says as he took out one of his cards to play with it, having nowhere to put his gaze on, "She stopped visiting me and I was thinking that it was better since she was weak anyways."

"But-"

"Shut up and let me continue my story," he snaps and Beomgyu immediately snaps his mouth shut and raises both of his hands in surrender.

"One night, while I was making my way home after singing at a local bar, she came to find me. She was shivering from the cold and had nothing to warm her up other than a lousy thin blanket. She came stumbling towards me and fell into my arms," his lips quiver as he continues and slowly looks up to meet the blonde's eyes, "Beomgyu, she was so pale and cold. Almost as if she was dead."

Taehyun's eyes were filled with sadness and regret and it hurts Beomgyu to see that. It isn't the Taehyun he knew, the one who keeps mocking him and making fun of him. This is another side of the boy he just discovered and he doesn't want to see this sad side of him anymore.

"I was freaking out but she just smiled at me and told me to show her a magic trick. I declined and told her that I'm going to get her home but she didn't want to. She said that she didn't have anymore time left and that she wanted to see me. I didn't have a choice."

"I showed her a magic trick. Then she told me to sing for her and so I did. When I was done singing for her, she was already sleeping..." he sighs, "And she wouldn't wake up. I did everything I can to wake her up. I was shaking her while screaming her name but she wouldn't wake up. CPR wasn't invented that time but I doubt that would work."

"Someone saw me and thought that I had killed the kid and that I used my singing to lure her out and used my cards to end her life. How crazy is that?" he laughs but the other can see how sad Taehyun was despite his laughter, "He called for help and they basically tied my hands with a rope and led me to a wizard's tower."

Beomgyu blinked, "Wizards are real?"

"Indeed, they are but I don't think there are anymore wizards today," the other nods at his answer, "They told the wizard everything and said that I had killed the young girl. I was then cursed by the wizard to stay inside this mirror for all of eternity. I could not tell lies and that I can't use my voice to sing. I can't even cry or feel disgusted or anything... I can only laugh and smile. They also cursed me that I can't use dark magic but it's not like I can use it anyways."

"I didn't mind it, I didn't even care about it. But you know what hurts the most?" Beomgyu shakes his head when Taehyun looked at him with a cold yet fragile expression on his face. He looks down and settles his gaze yet again on his chosen card.

"They gave me to my parents but my parents sold me. Unlike other people, they are my family so they can see me but they still sold me anyways and acted like I never even existed in the first place."

Beomgyu frowns at that information. The boy looked like he was about to cry and he felt sympathy for the boy. His parents aren't even that great too but even his parents wouldn't even plan on selling him... atleast that's what he thinks.

He would've hugged him if he isn't in the mirror.

"I want to get out of the mirror to plot my revenge against my family's bloodline, the Kangs, and that's it. Then I can finally end my life," he finishes.

"That's all the more reason why I don't wanna let you out," Beomgyu says as he furrows his brows at Taehyun, "You're still going to do something evil and then kill yourself after, I'm not letting you do that."

"I'm still a bad person," the boy says as he slides to the side of the frame and puts his arms at the back of his head as he leans back, "I should have sent her back to her mom."

Beomgyu sighs but gives him a small smile, "You know, I don't like my parents too."

Taehyun leans away from the side and quickly whips his head to look at Beomgyu with a dumbfounded expression, "You? Not liking your parents? That's seriously a lie, they have given you a lot of money and almost everything. I mean, look at you- look at your room! You are bad at picking up which clothes to wear but your clothes are hella expensive."

"You didn't need to roast the clothes I choose to wear," he scoffs and rolls his eyes, "But it's different when your parents expects you to find a girlfriend and marry her when I'm literally puking rainbows."

Taehyun quirks an eyebrow and his lips quirk up to make a small smile in interest, "So you're gay?"

The blonde splutters which made the brunette laugh at his reaction, "Y-yeah! You didn't know? Poor you!" he whips his head to the side with a hmph, trying to regain his confidence.

"Yeah sure, Captain Obvious. I wouldn't have suspected that you like sucking dick, really. I mean, yeah you like watching gay porn but I didn't think you were gay," he says nonchalantly which makes Beomgyu shout a loud 'yaaah!' and slaps the side of the mirror hard, only for his hand to start hurting.

"Idiot," the boy says as he smirks at his misfortune.

"How old are you anyways?" Beomgyu asks, still hissing in pain as he cradles his hand, "You talk about those stuff nonchalantly and I swear that I'll chuck you out of my room if I find out you're a baby."

"I'm 18, just one year younger than you. I would be more than 500 years old though but it seems like time stops if you are inside a mirror because I still look and sound the same," he shrugs.

Beomgyu's face turned into an expression of pure shock, the disrespect creeping in his veins. This brat had fun making fun of him and being so disrespectful towards him when he was just a year younger than him (he ignored the fact that Taehyun is supposed to be like 500 years old now).

"Yah! You should call me hyung, you brat!" he yells as he pushes his pointing finger at the mirror as if he was pushing it towards the younger's chest, "The disrespect I have been getting- oh my god! I can't believe it!"

Taehyun covers his ears as he starts making annoying noises which irritated the older even more.

"Yah! You knew that I was older than you yet you still continued being an irritating brat!"

"Lalala, I can't hear what Beomgyu is saying, lalala~"

"Atleast call me hyung, you brat!"

The younger uncovers his ears and gives him a knowing smile as he raises his eyebrows up, "Hmmm? You see me as a really close friend, Beommie~? I'm so touched that I'll call you hyung."

Beomgyu chokes on air because of the younger's sudden use of a nickname and his sudden use of 'hyung'. Well, he told the younger to call him that but he didn't expect to hear it in a somewhat sarcastic sentence.

He should have expected it though because even though it's just the second time that they have talked to each other but he feels like he knows Taehyun a lot and one thing he knows is that the brunette is a brat.

"Now that we are really close friends, can you come here and take off the tape at the back?" he says with an overly sweet smile on his face which snapped Beomgyu out of his thoughts.

"No," he responds.

"Awww, I thought that after we had a heart-to-heart talk about our pasts even if you didn't talk about your life that much, you would be a kind buddy to tear it off."

Beomgyu squints his eyes suspiciously at the younger, "What does the tape do?"

The overly sweet smile that was on the younger's face was gone in an instant as he gives his hyung a displeased expression, "I thought you already knew. How can someone as stupid as you be my hyung? Do you even go to school?"

"I do! They just don't teach me things to do when you find a man inside the mirror!"

"Whatever. It's a seal, idiot. If you tear it off, I'll come out," he snorts in reply as he vanishes from Beomgyu's view.

Beomgyu panics, seeing his own reflection instead of Taehyun's, "Taehyun? Taehyun! Where did you go?!" he calls out as he pats around the mirror only to hear a laugh.

"I'm in here, silly. I can make it that you can't see me," he giggles as his face pops into view, a happy smile on his face, "But I can still see you, hyung~"

Beomgyu lets out a sigh of relief that the guy isn't going anywhere. It would be a problem if he'd just disappeared and was in another person's mirror.

He grabs the mirror and hangs it on the wall instead of letting it stay leaning on the wall. Taehyun hums in approval, happy that the mirror is finally being hanged on the wall.

"I think it's much better if you don't show yourself when we talk," he says and as expected, the brat shows his full body as he grins and gives him a peace sign.

"But don't you think that it's even weirder talking to a voice without even seeing the person?" Taehyun says and Beomgyu pauses before sighing and facepalming after thinking about how stupid he sounded earlier, "Besides, it's more fun for the both of us if you can see me. You won't look like a crazy idiot and I'd have a good time dissing you since you'll get to see my reactions. Entertainment is hard to come by."

At the corner of eyes, his gaze managed to land on his flashdrive and he smiles before lowering his hands and looking at Taehyun who just raises an eyebrow at him as if he was expecting something.

Beomgyu walks towards the dresser and swipes the flashdrive off the counter and walks back infront of the mirror and shows the boy the flashdrive.

"Wanna watch a drama with me?" he smiles as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"If the reason why you're wiggling your eyebrows is you wanna watch some sexy videos–"

"TAEHYUN, NO!"

* * *

"This drama is pretty good," Taehyun says as he nods in acknowledgement and Beomgyu looks up to grin at him. They are currently watching He is Psychometric on his laptop that is facing the mirror and he decided to take comfort in sitting on the floor next to the mirror.

They are currently watching the fourth episode and he is actually surprised that Taehyun knew what a drama is. He asked the boy how'd he knew.

"Just because I was stuck here for 500 years doesn't mean I've been completely living under a rock. I've been passed around by different owners, what did you expect, idiot?"

Needless to say, he didn't ask him anymore questions.

"The male lead is cool," the younger boy says and he nods, "I know right?"

"He reminds me of you."

Beomgyu blushed. Did the magician just flirt with him? Did he indirectly say that he was cool? A smile was tugging his lips and he did his best to hold it back but a small smile managed to make its way on to his lips.

"Really?" he shyly says, fiddling with his hands.

"Yeah, both of you looked so stupid doing this," he giggles before holding both of his thumb and pointing finger down and proceeds to mock Beomgyu, "TT oooh, TT oooh, neomuhae neomuhae."

The smile on Beomgyu's face immediately falls as he glares at the laughing boy. The suit makes him look like he is a mature person but in reality, he's a really childish brat. He hits the mirror frame continously as if it would do damage to the laughing brat.

"Can't you even go through one day without mocking me?"

"It's fun!"

If the brat wouldn't stop making fun of him, then he'll just have to go with the flow.

"Neomuhae! Neomuhae!" Beomgyu says with an overly exaggerated pout as he hits the frame after every word. Taehyun falls to the ground from bursting out laughing after seeing how funny his hyung looked. Beomgyu giggles at the boy who is clearly having fun and no sooner than later, he bursts into a fit of laughter out of embarrassment.

They spent the next 30 minutes laughing and giggling stupidly, calming down and then looking at each other only to burst in another fit of giggles.

"This was the most fun I had in years!" Taehyun says in between his giggles, rolling around the floor laughing.

Beomgyu stops laughing but there's still a pleased smile on his face, "Really? I thought you were entertained by watching people do dumb things."

"But this is different," he says as he sits up, directing a soft smile at Beomgyu, "I am able to hold a conversation with someone and they managed to make me laugh. This is better than just watching someone do dumb things."

Beomgyu's breath hitched and his heart started beating faster upon seeing the genuine smile on Taehyun's face. This side of Taehyun he had just seen makes him feel so soft and happy. His smile has no signs of teasing and mocking, it's just filled with pure joy. It makes him feel warm all over to see that smile on the boy and he thinks that he looks good if he always has that smile on him.

And for some reason, he thinks that the two of them got closer because of this.

Beomgyu liked the thought of that.

"Is it too much if I ask you to set me free?" the boy says not much later and so he sticks his tongue out as an answer, "Okay, that's a no then."

* * *

"I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight, Taehyun!" he says as he tucks himself under the covers, feeling comfortable enough to sleep inside his room.

"Alright then," the other replies as Beomgyu pulls the string on the lamp on the table beside him, turning it off and then closing his eyes.

But for some reason, he still feels eyes on him and it makes him shiver. He sits up and turns on the lamp to see Taehyun sitting down and staring at him which makes his skin crawl.

"Dude, you're being creepy," he says as he shivered, "Go to sleep."

"I can't sleep," Taehyun replies, still staring at him with a blank and focused expression on his face, "It's not that I got insomnia or anything, it's just it's part of the curse."

"Then can you do something else besides staring at me? I know I'm hot, but it's creepy," he says before laying down and turning off the lamp again.

"You're not even that hot anyways," the other snorts and he resists the urge to throw a pillow at him, "Fine fine, I'll do something else."

Beomgyu closes his eyes, the feeling of being watched has disappeared and now he feels happy and contented with the comfortable feeling. He was about to doze off into slumber when the other suddenly started to say sentences in different tones with a loud voice as if he was speaking into some auto tuner that has its settings into max.

"The hell are you doing?"

"I can't sing, so I'm just gonna recite the lyrics of songs with different tones to make it seem like I'm singing," the younger answers in a cool manner but Beomgyu could feel the boy's mischievous smirk even though he couldn't see him.

He covers his ears as Taehyun continues reciting lyrics loudly and he sighs. He isn't going to be falling asleep anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we got actor soobin for the teaser ;; not gonna lie, i was so sad :(( if you look closely on his lips, you'd know he was asking them for help and to stop pretending he isn't there :((
> 
> #savesoobin2k20 ㅠㅠ
> 
> also, i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter ^^


	3. You make me feel things.

It's been two weeks and Beomgyu can now walk around his room without the magician scaring him. He has also grown accustomed to the boy's teasing and mockings but sometimes, he gets caught off guard and heads over to the mirror to hit the frame as if it would do damage to the younger.

Sometimes, when Taehyun managed to annoy his soul out of him, he would threaten him that he would sell him but the boy would say that he can't do it and he would pout, knowing that his threats are nothing to the boy.

Well yeah, he could sell the mirror but he's afraid of the thought that what if the next person who grabs ahold of Taehyun managed to set him free? And the younger reminded him that he would walk through heaven and hell to find him and kick his ass once he gets out if he manages to sell him but he originally didn't worry about that since he can't see how the tiny boy could be so threatening.

"You can't kick my ass, you're as harmless as a squirrel!" he once told the younger.

Taehyun only raised his eyebrows at him before he started stripping, taking off his blazer which made Beomgyu both confused and a little bit ~~aroused~~ curious. The boy unbuttoned and took off his polo shirt which left him in a plain black t-shirt which made Beomgyu even more ~~aroused~~ confused. The boy then rolled up his sleeves and began to flex his arm, showing him his muscles and smirking at him. Didn't the boy say he was a magician? He is hella ripped, how is that possible?!

Beomgyu gulped and started to flex his arms to see little to no muscles and so he backed out of the idea of selling him.

He threatened to break the mirror once when the other irritated him but the younger sulked for an entire day, keeping quiet and not showing himself for the entire day. As much as Beomgyu liked the peaceful and quiet atmosphere that he hasn't been able to experience for quite a while, he has already grown attached to the boy and gets sad when the other boy doesn't want to show himself and so, he assures him that he won't break him.

Well, the boy got him feeling a lot of things ever since the day they hung out together.

Beomgyu has been staying inside his room most of the time to hang out with the boy. They mostly watch movies or dramas and talk about a lot of things to pass the time since Taehyun basically needs some fun in his life.

He would leave his laptop everyday facing the mirror while playing some random movie or drama for Taehyun to watch while he was at school or somewhere out there buying food. He learned his lesson though not to leave the laptop with a kdrama episode from a website because the website would automatically pause the video and ask if he was still watching. He came home to find the magician glaring at him as he pointed at the laptop and basically complained that he was getting to the good part when the website decided to cut his fun. Beomgyu learned his lesson and started downloading videos for the young magician.

But as always, people can get tired of things and Taehyun is already tired of watching movies and dramas. Beomgyu thought of an alternative: playing music for Taehyun to enjoy while he was out but that didn't really last long because the boy would whine that it makes him want to sing but Beomgyu would tell him that he could just dance along to the music instead of singing but the younger said that he was too lazy to dance (and said that he didn't want to look like an idiot like Beomgyu, but that's not important).

And so, Beomgyu thought that playing some fitness videos on his laptop would be a bright idea even though the younger would just glare at him everytime he plays one.

Beomgyu had came back from school to enter his room. It was Friday and he really wanted to get some rest. He goes inside his room to find Toto staring at Taehyun who is currently crouching down to look closely at the bird with the noisy laptop on his bed completely ignored.

"Okay now, repeat what I said," he says with a bright smile on his face upon seeing Beomgyu.

"Beomgyu is an idiot," the parrot mimics and Taehyun claps his hands. Taehyun looked stunned for a moment but that moment easily melted when he quickly shouted a soft yay.

The owner of the parrot sighs as he walks inside the room with an unamused expression on his face as he settles his bag down and moves towards his laptop to pause the video, "You really couldn't find something else fun to do."

"Beomgyu is an idiot! Beomgyu is an idiot!" the bird happily repeats as it flew up to his shoulder and nuzzles his cheek. The blonde couldn't be mad at his innocent bird and so he whips his head to glare at the magician who is still crouched down on the ground, looking at him innocently.

"Look," he sighs as raises his arm up for Toto to fly over and land on as he walks towards his bird cage and puts him inside, "You can do whatever you want to have but you can't just teach my baby indecent words."

Taehyun shrugs before standing up and– oh lord.

The boy had took off his blazer and polo shirt along with his yellow tie (how the hell did he not notice that earlier) and had ditched his fedora leaving him only in his black shirt and black pants, the boy looked hotter just in casual wear and oh my god, those muscles that he will never get tired of seeing.

"Idiot!" Toto happily chirps which snapped Beomgyu out of his short gay moment and his ears turned bright red at the thought that he was drooling over the evil (oh, not really evil) boy's muscles.

He looks up and meets Taehyun in the eyes who only smirks and raises an eyebrow at him, not missing the moment that the other was staring at his muscles. The blonde tried to maintain a poker face as if he wasn't drooling over his muscles despite his red ears and now red face telling him otherwise.

When he says that Taehyun made him feel things, he didn't expect himself to be ogling at the boy after getting his feelings straight.

"For a lazy person, you sure got good muscles," he says.

"Yep, I know," the brunette grins as he stretches his arms, "I didn't miss the way you were staring at my arms."

Beomgyu screams and runs out of the room with his hands on his face.

* * *

The next day was uneventful and completely boring. It was Saturday and Beomgyu's friends had invited him to go hang out with them but he declined, saying that he was tired and need rest– which is not completely a lie though, he wanted to stay at home to rest and maybe hang out with the boy.

He acknowledged his feelings for the boy in the mirror but he doesn't know how that would greatly affect him since he knows that the boy can't even feel emotions other than happiness, which sucks because it means that he is already rejected.

And that the boy really wanted to get out and get revenge on his bloodline.

Beomgyu knows that the boy did nothing wrong but if he were to let him out, he knows that the brunette would do something far more worse than what he was accussed of (the boy already said that he was going to kill himself after he was done with his deed) and so he would never bring it upon himself to let him out.

Even if he let Taehyun out and tried to talk or fight him out of his decisions, the magician would just be stubborn and would easily manhandle him if he tries to fight him and as much as how hot that sounds, he doesn't want to get his ass beat anytime sooner.

"It's already 1PM and it's still boring," Taehyun whines as he rolls around the floor. It was a strange thing for Beomgyu to see since the boy was always serious but then again, he's still a kid and maybe the effects of boredom is starting to get in his head.

"Then let's listen to some music," Beomgyu offers and Taehyun slowly sits up to give the older an unimpressed face, "Your taste in music sucks. Plus, you keep listening to that Strawberry Bubblegum song whenever you take a shower that it makes me want to go deaf everytime I hear it."

"Hey! It's a good song and it makes me feel rich whenever I shower!" he rebutes, offended that his taste in music has been judged.

Taehyun snorts, "You're already rich when it comes to money but I guess you aren't rich in good taste in music."

He groans in defeat as he flops down on his bed face first as the other giggles at his defeat. Beomgyu thinks for a few seconds before smiling and grabbing his phone that was beside his head and quickly tapped on the Spotify app, scrolling down on his playlist and pressed this one particular songs he stands up in front of the mirror and kneels down.

The magician only looked at him in confusion and was about to ask him if he was going to do something dumb again when he hears the first beat of the music and stills.

"Geonbaehaja like a thunder," Beomgyu sang along with his deep voice as he proceeds to dance along to the music, smirking when he sees Taehyun's eyes sparkle in excitement.

"Ne modeun geol chaewo," he continues and his takes note of how his heart leapt in happiness when the boy mouths the lyrics and proceeds to do the dance, moving along to the beat of the music and being synchronized with the older boy.

"Neomchyeoheureul deusi."

"I got the answer yeah, soneul pyeo siseoneun wiro say oh! Janeul deureo maju bomyeo say oh! Kkeuteun meon sijagimeul urin baeteonae, gieokae balkkeutbuteo hamkke say my name!" Taehyun raps. Beomgyu stopped dancing out of shock, awe, and respect.

"You said you can't–"

"Singing is different than rapping," Taehyun answers before he could even finish his sentence as he continues dancing, eyes on his shocked hyung, "Plus, rapping wasn't even invented at that time so all I can do is rap even if I'm not good at it."

"You're so cool," he whispers and the boy held his head high as he continues to dance, his pride puffing up.

They continued dancing until the song was over, the two of them panting afterwards. Beomgyu paused the song that was playing next before he collapsed in front of Taehyun.

"I knew that you liked the song because I've seen you moving your body along to the music whenever I play it," Beomgyu pants, proud at himself, "I didn't expect you to know the choreography though."

"It came up on shuffle on Youtube quite often," Taehyun answers as he stretches the both of his arms before flopping on his back, "I like that song."

"Now we can agree that I have good taste in music," he wiggles his eyebrows at the boy who is obviously avoiding eye contact with him, "Come on, I know that you also like Fake Love and Spring Day."

"Correction, it is 'love'," the boy responds with a pout and Beomgyu rejoices, happy that he boy agreed though not directly. He was so busy jumping up and down in joy that he missed the fond look Taehyun had on his face as he looked at him.

A loud knock was heard at the living door room which had sent Beomgyu out of his short-lived celebration. He calmed down and walked towards the door.

"I got visitors. I'll see you later, Taehyunnie!" he lets the nickname slip out which made the said boy's eyes widen in surprise. Beomgyu immediately runs out of the door, giggling as he rushes out because the boy might call him out if he stays inside longer. The boy forgot to shut the door because be was in a hurry to be out.

Taehyun sighs and rubs his hands on his face as he sits down, trying to wipe off the smile on his face, "Idiot. You couldn't just call me that and rush out," he murmurs as his cheeks started to show a rosy pink color.

"You are so cute, hyung!" the bird chirps inside his cage and Taehyun immediately snaps his head to glare at the bird who only cocks his head at its teacher, waiting for praises.

"And you only said it now. Well, whatever. Good bird," he sighs but smiles when the bird happily chirps and flaps its wings cheerfully because of the praise.

* * *

"Coming!" Beomgyu shouts when the knocking seemed to get even louder. He smiles as he opened the door, expecting it to be his friends but his smile falters when he sees his parents.

"Mom... dad..."

"Hello, Beommie," his mom says in a sickly sweet voice as they both move to step inside his room without even waiting for him to step aside.

His parents walked around his living room, pretending to admire the furniture and the decorations he bought when Beomgyu knows that the two of them are judging him for his choice of furniture.

He bites his lip, contemplating if he should say it or not, "What are you doing here?" he decided to say.

The two of them looked at each other before laughing and settling down on the couch, "We came to see our son, of course! Is it bad to visit you every so often?" his mom asks as he moves to sit on the chair at the opposite side of them.

He badly wanted to say yes but he doesn't want to get his ass beat for now, "No."

It was silent for a while and all Beomgyu wanted to do was kick them out and dive under the covers and talk with Taehyun until he falls asleep. He never wanted to see his parents because of how judging they are.

"How's school?" his father asks.

"Good."

"How are your grades?"

"They're high."

"Are you lonely at school?"

"I got good friends."

"Do you have a girlfriend yet?" his mom asks and he visibly sighs, knowing that this conversation would happen sooner or later and he hates it.

His parents took it as a no and they both sigh in disbelief, looking at him with a disappointed look on their eyes.

"Beomgyu, you're 19 now. You need to stop it with your homosexual delusions. It's time you grow up and face reality," his father says but Beomgyu immediately shakes his head.

"It's not a delusion, dad. I just told you that I am bisexual, isn't that okay with you as long as I still like girls?"

"You have been dating boys over the past few years! You are gay!" his father yells, standing up as his mother tries to calm him down and giving Beomgyu a glare that says "stop it now".

It was always like this. Ever since Beomgyu came out to them that he was bi, his parents never failed to visit him and remind him that he has to stop thinking about that and that he was just sick in the head.

He sometimes wonders if it was a good thing to tell them but he doesn't regret saying that. He couldn't handle lying about something that he doesn't even like.

Still, his parents never respected his sexuality. Sure, he dated a few girls but he seemed to be more attracted to guys and his parents won't let him live in peace unless he gets rid of his homosexual tendencies.

As if he were to do that.

"And so what if I am?" he challenges, standing up as he leveled his father with a glare. He knows that he won't get anything in return if he just nods meekly at his father's word like he always did, so why not make him angrier than ever and hope that he won't meddle with him anymore.

His mother gasps while his father's lips turned into a nasty scowl, "You are not going to be a disgrace in this family! Remember this, Beomgyu. We are the ones raising you and we cannot afford to raise a disgrace! We will not let our money be wasted by the likes of you!"

"Then why don't you take all your stupid money away? I can live all by myself and get a job!" he yells back.

As quick as a flash, he finds himself sitting down on the couch, his mother screaming at his father– or him, he doesn't know nor care– and his hand on his cheek that is currently stinging as he looks at his father with a baffled expression.

"Let this be a warning to you and let this be the last time I get to slap you on the face," his father warns as he walks away from him, heading towards the door with his wife trailing behind him, "I will cut down your allowance. You will no longer live in luxury as you once were. I will give you something tomorrow and hopefully you'll be able to redeem yourself."

Beomgyu stands up in anger as he clenches both of his fists, "Take all of your money away! I'll show you both that I don't need to be sustained by the two of you in order to live!" he yells just as the both of them walk out of his dorm with a loud slam.

He waits for a minute to make sure that they really left before he bolted to the door and locked it just in case his parents came back. He then slides to the ground and lets the tears that he held back for a while all flow down. He stays huddled on the ground for a while before he heads over to his room.

Upon entering his room, Toto looks at him and asks, "Are you okay?" with his soft chirpy voice. He smiles sadly at the bird before looking at Taehyun whose face says that he taught the bird those words.

"Really though, are you okay?" the magician asks, "I kinda heard everything since you didn't close the door..."

Beomgyu nods weakly as he sat down in front of the mirror, giving him a thumbs up. Taehyun also sat down so that he wouldn't be looking down at his hyung.

"I'm going to get a job and show them that I can live without them sustaining me," he mutters weakly while the other just looks at him with a worried expression, "I'm sorry but I don't think that I can hang out with you more, Taehyun."

"It's okay, hyung. Really, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay," he sighs as he wipes his tears that are still rolling down on his cheeks, "You're going to get even more lonely there. I'm sorry that I can't spend more time with you," he starts sobbing and his body starts shaking as he covers his face with his hands in an attempt to contain his tears that continue spilling out.

"I'm sorry, Taehyunnie... I'm sorry..." he continues to weep as the boy inside the mirror continues looking at him with a sad expression on his face.

"Beomgyu-hyung," he starts and Beomgyu looks at him and his breath hitches when he sees the sad expression on Taehyun's face, "If I wasn't cursed, I would've cried with you."

* * *

After an hour or so, Beomgyu had calmed down and went off to find a job but not before turning on the laptop and letting it face Taehyun as he played the videos that he saved on his playlist during his freetime which consisted of all the episodes of "Run BTS!" since the magician really loved the group (and the maknae too).

Even if Taehyun's favorite show was playing, he couldn't help but get distracted. The sad face of his hyung kept flashing whenever he tries to focus on watching the show and so he easily gets sad. He wants nothing more than to replace the sadness that he saw on Beomgyu's face with a bright smile but he doesn't know how since he's well, trapped inside of a mirror and that his hyung won't let him out.

Well, he'll just have to think of some other ways that he can do to make Beomgyu happy even if he's inside the mirror.

He spent the whole afternoon thinking about ways to make Beomgyu happy (and watching "Run BTS!" because that Jeon Jungkook guy is so amazing) that he didn't realize how fast time came by and that his hyung already arrived. He looks up to see the older drowning in sweat and completely looks like a zombie.

"I'm home," Beomgyu says as he takes off his cap and flops on top of his bed face first, completely drained out.

"You should go take a bath, hyung," Taehyun says as he pinches his nose, "You stink."

Beomgyu looks up to glare at the snickering boy, "You can't even smell me from there, you brat."

He sits down and proceeds to shrug off his jacket while stretching, "Anyways, I found a job at this pretty famous burger place. It has good pay so I think I hit the jackpot. The only downside is that there are a ton of customers and it's pressuring when you're the cook."

Taehyun smiles and claps his hands, "You're off to a good start already! That's nice, hyung! More customers always mean more money."

"It's still tiring though and I am afraid if I will move slowly and burn the patties, I'll get coca cola flying towards my face," he frowns at that thought.

"That won't happen," the other assures, waving his hands as if he was dismissing that kind of thought which he was really trying to because he doesn't want Beomgyu to be thinking of negative things now, "You're going to be a great cook, you hear me? Don't let negativity ruin you and your job. You have nothing to worry about if you will dump those negative thoughts away. You're a good and hardworking person, hyung, there's nothing that you can't do."

Beomgyu blinks at him and then smiles sheepishly, surprised yet touched at the same time of the younger's words, "Guess you're right, I just hope that nothing bad will happen–" the older boy was suddenly cut off by a loud knock on the door. The two exchange glances for a while before the blonde made his way towards out of his room with the brunette yelling "you jinxed it," right behind him.

He stands infront of the front door, contemplating on opening it. What if it was his parents again? Or was it a murderer waiting to strike? He suddenly feels afraid of the possibility. Call him crazy, but with the sudden appearance of Taehyun in the mirror, anything can be possible.

The person on the other side knocks on the door again which snapped him out of his thoughts. He sucks in a deep breath and lets it all out, positioning himself in a way that he could easily run towards his room if the person on the other side is dangerous.

He opens the door to find– a young girl?

"Hello, Beomgyu-oppa!" she says with a bright smile on her face, eyes twinkling as she checks him out from head to toe, "I was sent here by your father to become your girlfriend. I hope that we can grow closer as time goes by!"

Taehyun was right.

He really jinxed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if u guys noticed it but i added a little reference ㅋㅋㅋㅋ the strawberry bubblegum reference is from bambam and i couldnt help but add it because his birthday was yesterday (and i failed to update this yesterday ㅠㅠ)
> 
> i let my inner atiny out in this one ㅋㅋㅋ soon, ill let out my inner stay ㅋㅋㅋ
> 
> i hope you all enjoyed this update!


	4. I didn't mean for it to end up this way...

For the first time, Taehyun felt like he was pissed.

Well, he can't say that he was really pissed but he feels annoyed and bothered at the new girl, which is a surprise to him because it has been years since he felt this sort of feeling.

He doesn't even know if he's actually feeling that way considering the effects of the curse and that it's been hundreds of years since he felt any other sort of emotion.

But if he's starting to experience different kinds of feelings, it would be great... right?

Wrong.

This feeling always comes up whenever Beomgyu would talk about this new girl that his father paid to become his girlfriend, which is pretty messed up, and whenever he sees the girl, he keeps getting annoyed since she thinks that since his hyung's father paid her then she can just burst inside his room and drag Beomgyu out whenever she wants.

Their time together had lessened because Beomgyu had to get a job and it had lessened even more because of the sudden appearance of this long haired twig who uses bright pink lipstick that doesn't even look good on her.

Taehyun knows that he likes Beomgyu and has a feeling that it is the reason why he was feeling this way. He isn't dumb though, he knows that a part of him is also jealous which is why he is almost always in a bad mood everytime he and Beomgyu talk.

It's not mostly because of his feelings though but it's because it's been years since he had conversed and formed a close bond with the owner of the mirror. Every single person that owned the mirror and seen him for the first time always took their chance to sell him, throw him away– just get him out of their lives though he isn't sure why he isn't broken which is quite a miracle.

Well, there was one guy that he had been friends with two hundred years ago. He was a middle aged man with a wife and kids and he actually treated Taehyun like his own son (that is trapped inside a mirror). He was happy and contented at that time until he saw his first parental figure along with his family get murdered in front of him by some burglars. He could remember the pain that he felt inside and he was boiling with rage even if he was unable to show it because of his curse– hell, he couldn't even cry because of this damned curse.

In the end, the burglars got away with everything and even sold him in the end.

Ever since that day, he vowed that he will never get close to his owners. It was going fairly well until Beomgyu arrived. He did not expect the boy to hold on to him for so long and he's afraid of the pain that will take over him because he knows that he is already attached to the boy and he really can't do anything to deattach himself from his hyung. Taehyun is so whipped that he's so fucked.

It has been a week ever since that girl arrived and he would always sulk and disappear out of the blonde's view if the other would speak to him. Taehyun knows that he's making him sad and confused as to why he was acting like that but he hoped that the other would just give up and ignore him.

If he was thinking that Beomgyu would give up sooner or later, then he was very wrong.

Two weeks had passed and Beomgyu still calls out for him, sitting in front of the mirror with a pout as he begs Taehyun to show himself and that he's tired of staring at his own reflection (and that it is creepy too). The blonde may not see the brunette but the other can see him as clear as day and it gives him problems since the other knows how to do aegyo and his heart couldn't take the cuteness when the other pleads.

And so, Taehyun would tease him and show only his face but covers it with his fedora which makes Beomgyu whine.

They stayed like that for a day or two with Taehyun just showing his fedora covered face and with Beomgyu whining to show his face (even going as far as to say that he missed him for him just to show it). Of course, Taehyun isn't that heartless and shows himself at times but he quickly hides himself after half an hour which makes Beomgyu even more sad because it isn't really like him to hide himself and stay quiet. The magician knows that the blonde misses his blunt and savage words despite the said person not saying anything about it, he can just feel it.

Then one day, Beomgyu just stopped.

The other didn't bother talking to him nor sparing him a glance. He was just treated like a regular mirror and as much as Taehyun liked it because it might be a cure to his attachment, it makes his heart ache and makes him feel a different kind of hurt. He doesn't like it but he just has to accept that it'll stay that way.

Three days had passed by and Taehyun found himself staring at a sad Beomgyu, sitting down in front of him and fiddling with his fingers, his face holding a guilty expression.

"Listen, Taehyun," the older boy starts and he just listens attentively, still not showing himself, "I don't know what I did wrong for you to hide yourself like that and for you to act like I'm not really that fun to talk to anymore but..."

'Oh god no, he thinks that he did something wrong, oh fuck no,' the magician thinks, internally panicking.

"But I don't want to end our friendship like this... we get along very well and I don't want to ruin this precious friendship because of something that I did. I'm sorry if I had offended you or hurt you and I am ashamed that I don't even know what it is," he apologizes as his voice cracks at the end which made Taehyun panic even more, afraid that his hyung will start crying even if he did nothing wrong.

Beomgyu placed both of his palms on the floor and prepared to bow his head when Taehyun let himself be seen in the mirror and quickly yelled for him to not bow in apology.

"Hyung," he starts and his heart aches again when he sees the blonde's eyes look up and lock its gaze at him, sparkling and going brighter when it settled on him, "You didn't do anything wrong. I promise."

The other frowns, "Then why were you avoiding me? It really hurt you know! Imagine your friend that you talk to everyday suddenly giving you the cold shoulder!"

Taehyun flinches at the older's tone and immediately looks down, "I'm sorry, I was just jealous..."

The frown and angry look on Beomgyu's face completely vanished upon hearing his words, replaced by amusement and curiosity, "Jealous?" he asks, completely interested.

Ah shit.

"I'm jealous of the fact that you can go out on dates with people you like while I'm stuck inside the mirror," he lies far too smoothly that he was even impressed at himself. Well, it wasn't actually really a lie since he is also jealous about that so no wonder he was able to say that out loud, "How 'bout you let me out?"

"Hey! I don't like her!" Beomgyu refutes as his face turned red and Taehyun felt himself visibly relax until the other continued.

"Well, atleast I think I don't."

And so, Taehyun's world collapses.

He coughs and clears his throat as he tries to drown the disappointment that is forming inside his heart, "What do you mean by that?" he asks cooly, not wanting the other to see through him.

"Well," the blonde says with a timid smile on his face, "I know that my dad paid her to become my girlfriend and I really thought that she is only in for the money but as time went by, she told me that she had fallen for me and didn't care about the money anymore... and I think that I have fallen too."

"So I decided to date for real now."

Oh.

The blonde looks at Taehyun with eyes that are shining with something that might be plead? As if he was pleading him to support their relationship and for things to go back to the way it was before. The magician wills himself to smile despite knowing that his heart is cracking, "Ah, I see. Good for you, I guess," he says as he suddenly feels his throat going dry.

Beomgyu seemed to look sad and disappointed though he doesn't know why but he quickly shrugs it off, "To be honest though, I don't like her. She doesn't know what sort of makeup to use for her face-- it makes me cringe seeing her," he snorts as he takes off his hat and plays with it.

"Hey, you're mean! You can't say that to girls-- much more say things like that about my girlfriend," the boy pouts and Taehyun tries to ignore how his heart constricted after hearing the words "my girlfriend" come out of Beomgyu's mouth.

"Last I checked, you were gay."

"It's nice to have some changes here and there sometimes though," he counters as the other gives him a look that says that he doesn't believe him, "Besides, she's cute and funny! And it doesn't matter if she does not know how to do makeup because it's the inside that matters!"

"Hmm, I couldn't say that she is a good person. She was once in it for the money at first," the magician shrugs.

"Taehyunnie, you're so mean!" Beomgyu whines.

"Hey now, I'm just trying to save you from getting hurt," he laughs as he stretches his arms, "Also, it's getting late. Go to sleep," he reminds the other as he sits back down to play with his cards. It isn't really that late though, but he wanted to end this conversation now to also save himself from getting even more hurt.

Beomgyu looked sad and confused since they always end up talking their heads off until midnight and it's like Taehyun is avoiding him again. He wanted to tell him that he still wants to talk to him but the boy somehow gives off a vibe that says that he shouldn't bother him. He always pesters the boy to talk more before the boy would scold him and tell him to go to sleep before making himself disappear again but the blonde knows that the brunette doesn't want to be bothered right now.

He sighs as he tucks himself under the covers, trying to ignore his aching heart.

Maybe trying to make Taehyun jealous was stupid.

* * *

Taehyun is currently bored.

Beomgyu had told him that he would be coming home late because of his job but he knows that the boy is lying. One look at the blonde's face when he was checking his phone with a small smile, he knows that he isn't going to be coming home late because of his job.

Then again, he's bored.

He had spent the whole day watching the remaining few episodes of "Run BTS!" that his hyung had played on his laptop for him to watch until it had ended and started playing random videos from his hyung's playlist. He was bored of the videos, finding nothing interesting (except for that one music video his hyung added to his playlist, MIROH was it? It was by a group named Stray Kids, he guesses but the song was fire, he has gotta admit.)

He had fun for a little while by teaching the bird a few things that were a little inappropriate and might give Beomgyu a heart attack later since he is here tainting the poor innocent bird but that didn't last long when the parrot flew back inside it's cage to rest.

Taehyun had spent his remaining hours staring blankly ahead at the laptop while hoping that the gadget would explode because of overheating and that the fire would burn the seal behind the mirror which would let him out– and still would burn him in the process but he can handle atleast a few burns if that scenario would happen.

He was so focused on his thoughts that he had suddenly lost track of time and had heard the sound of the front door being opened.

"Finally, he's home," he sighs as he stretches, waiting for the door to open.

He hears muffled voices outside the bedroom door and loud footsteps shuffling which made him a bit worried. Did burglars break in? Is Beomgyu okay?

"–No, no–" he hears Beomgyu's voice outside the door and he sighs in relief. The idiot is okay, he doesnt't have to be worried and– wait, who is he telling 'no' to?

The doorknob jiggles for a bit before the door burst open. He was about to open his mouth to greet him "nicely" but immediately shut his mouth when he sees Beomgyu and a girl stumbling inside the room, lips locked.

Taehyun freezes as he stares at the two lovers in front of him. His heart started to ache but he willed himself to ignore it. Beomgyu is his first friend after hundreds of years, he should be happy that his friend is going to get laid tonight and he shouldn't get in the way because he's never getting out of the mirror. He smiles sadly as he respects the two's relationship.

And then grins because he can be a petty bitch. Entertainment is hard to come by, right?

"Looks like things are getting steamy over there," Taehyun says as he fans himself with his hand and struggles not to laugh when Beomgyu flinched at the sound of his voice and immediately pulled away from their make out session.

"I– I–" Beomgyu stuttered as he locked eyes with Taehyun, horrified as the boy started to smirk.

"Oppa~" the girl whines needily as she paws at the blonde's shirt, making Taehyun wolf whistle.

"Take off her shirt!" he yells as he sits down, enjoying the view. It doesn't mean that he can't have some fun if his love isn't reciprocated.

Beomgyu glares at Taehyun and mouth something in the lines of "don't look" or "it's not what it looks like" but the magician just wiggled his eyebrows at the dork, smirk unwavering.

The girl looked at the blonde, confused as to why the boy was rooted to the ground with his hands no longer moving. She moves out and pushes him on to the bed and settles on top of him, shocking Beomgyu who is also growing even more horrified as seconds passed.

"Look umm– let's not do this–"

"Why? You don't want to?" the girl pouts and Beomgyu chokes as he hears Taehyun booing at the side.

"Boo! Grow some balls and fuck her!" the boy hollered which made the blonde's blood boil.

"Shut up," he hisses at the mirror, not noticing how the girl's eyes widened in confusion and hurt, "You want me to shut up" she asks, obviously hurt and Beomgyu panics yet again.

His brain immediately buffers, "Nono, I said you're a top!" is what comes out of his mouth. He doesn't know if she even likes being a top and was about to apologize if he didn't see the smile forming on her face.

Beomgyu internally sighs in relief as she nods energetically and starts leaning down to capture Beomgyu's lips who lifted his head up to meet their lips but flinched when he heard the cursed magician's loud booing.

"What? You're gonna let a girl do all the work? How unmanly."

He closes his eyes as the girl on top of him started nibbling his ear and he is currently trying to drown out Taehyun's voices that is currently ringing inside his head.

"A man should stick it in, that is 'un-gentlemanly' of you, hyung, if that's even a word."

"Would she even enjoy it? Her legs are going to get tired of bouncing up and down."

"What do you know about sex anyways, virgin?" he snaps as he whirls his head to glare at the mirror. His eyes widened when he sees Taehyun laugh so hard that he is clutching his stomach as he barely registers the shock on his supposed girlfriend's face.

"Oppa, what's gotten into you?" she asks, concerned at the individual, "You tell me to top but now ask me what I know about sex? I'm hardly a virgin!" she hisses.

"I'm– I–" he gulps, there's no way out of this. He had pissed her off and he knows how girls are when you piss them off.

Beomgyu sighs as he sits up and gently pushes her off him, glaring at the mirror for a second before looking back at her. Taehyun just ruined everything.

"Let's just not do this, okay?" he mumbles weakly as he looks up to give her a small smile as he runs his hand through his hair, "I really don't feel like doing it."

"I don't understand you at all, Beomgyu," the girl says as she looks at him with worry on her face– or was it disappointment? Beomgyu couldn't tell.

"Wuss! Backing out of a challenge like that! C'mon, give me some action."

"I fucking swear Kang Taehyun," he swears underneath his breath as he turns yet again to glare at the mirror, his glare however doesn't affect the brat inside.

"You keep staring at the mirror," she says, "The whole time we've been here, you keep talking and staring at the mirror as if someone is there and those times when I barge in your room, I always find you talking to yourself or facing the mirror."

Beomgyu gulps, was he really that obvious? Damn, if only he was careful.

She moves away from the troubled blonde as she reaches for her purse and brings out her Victoria Secret perfume and walks towards the mirror.

"Plus, I feel like I've been watched the whole time. Something is wrong with this mirror!" she raises the perfume up, ready to hit the mirror.

Taehyun stops laughing, his eyes darting from a shocked Beomgyu to the girl and then to the perfume on the girl's hands. He immediately backs away to the very back of the mirror until his back hits the invisible force inside the mirror. He raises his arms to cover his face as if it would make a difference when the bottle hits.

He closed his eyes when he saw the perfume bottle coming down, bracing himself for the incoming hit.

'I wonder how it feels to disappear,' he thinks as he shuts his eyes tightly.

Taehyun heard a loud yell and immediately opened his eyes to see that he is still there, that the mirror still isn't broken, and that Beomgyu was currently holding the girl's perfume bottle in his hand.

"Stop! Just because my father paid you for this shit doesn't mean you can go around and break things!" the blonde scolds, glaring at the girl who flinched at his tone– even Taehyun flinched at the boy's tone too. This is the first time he has ever saw Beomgyu this mad.

"Snap out of it, Beomgyu!" the girl snaps back after collecting herself, "It's just a mirror! What the hell is the mirror doing to you?!"

"Nothing! You are out of your mind to think that this mirror has got something to do with me."

The two locked their eyes at each other, glares penetrating through each other and for a moment, Taehyun had forgotten how to breathe. The atmosphere was intense and the silence was deafening. Taehyun wanted to speak up, joke about the current things but he knows that this isn't the right time.

He doesn't want to face Beomgyu's wrath.

The girl sighs before she snatches the perfume out of Beomgyu's hand and fixes her shirt before grabbing her purse and walking out of his room, "Your father didn't pay me enough to put up with you. I'm done," she hisses before slamming the door shut.

Now, it was just Beomgyu and Taehyun.

The blonde never moved from his place, his head still lowered with his eyes glued to the ground. All Taehyun could see was his back and if he could just reach out, he might be able to rest his hand on his back but his hands were just pressed up on the glass, so close to his back.

He knows that he has stooped over the line. He knows that he has to apologize.

"Hyung–"

"What the hell was that?!" his hyung whipped around to fix his glare on Taehyun now, who shrunk back.

The magician knows that Beomgyu is just one inch taller than him but at this moment, it feels like the boy towered over him. So this is what it feels to be guilty and ashamed, you feel small.

"I know that you needed fun or some shit but wasn't that going over the line?!"

The magician wanted to counter that he could have just ignored him and continue to make out with the girl but he knows better than to let that thought out.

"I'm sorry..." is what he says.

"Do you really need to show how bitter you are? That's why you were acting like you're such a brat?!"

"Bitter? Hyung– you got it all wrong! I wasn't bitter or anything, I was just trying to have fun," Taehyun was surprised at the older boy's allegations. Did the older boy know about his feelings? No, it must be because of what he said that he is jealous that he can't be in a relationship like him. Beomgyu is a bit right though, he was a bit bitter too but not to that extent that he wanted to break them like that.

He was petty, yes, but he didn't imagine that this kind of scenario will happen. He had thought that the blonde would just ignore him and continue exchanging spit with the girl but that didn't happen.

Plus, he flinched when Beomgyu called him a brat. His hyung always called him that when he keeps being such a pain in the ass to him but his hyung never meant it in a hurting kind of way, he usually called the younger that nickname as a sign of endearment but this time, it was different.

"You call ruining my life fun?!"

"No, I'm not even thinking of ruining your life nor thinking that it's fun! Why are you so upset–"

"Well, the moment you came into my life, everything has been hell!" the blonde cut him off.

It seemed like time stopped when Beomgyu had said that. Taehyun stared at the blonde with eyes that are filled with resentment and heartbreak but he doesn't know if the older could sense that. Beomgyu noticed the hate and anger in Taehyun's eyes and so he opened his mouth to continue but the magician cut him off. The boy was very upset and so, he couldn't stop his mouth from saying the next thing.

"If I was the reason why your life was hell, then why didn't you throw me away the moment you saw me?" he yelled and this time it was the blonde's turn to flinch.

"What do you mean? I couldn't risk anyone finding you and letting you out!"

"So what? You think that there are humans wandering around that are stupid enough to rip off the suspicious tag behind the mirror?" he snapped back, "If I was the reason why your life was hell, then why did you take care of me? Make me watch videos, talk to me and shit, was that hell for you?!"

Beomgyu blinked at Taehyun's words, realizing what he had said. He internally panicked, the boy had misinterpreted his words but... he didn't really phrase his words that well. Now the boy thinks that he destroyed his life but he really meant it in another way.

"That's not what I m–"

"Did you just do that because you pity me? That because I'm inside the mirror, I'm some kind of handicap that you have to take care? I didn't ask for you to treat me so kindly, I'm just some excess baggage to you!" he continued. If Taehyun could cry, he would right now. He wanted to cry more than ever but this curse prevents him from doing so and that feeling is just stuck on his throat, unable to get out. This was painful for Taehyun since the lump on his throat won't go down and he feels like choking on air, unable to let out his tears and cry.

The older frowned at his words, "If you didn't like it, then why did you enjoy all those things, huh? Laughing, smiling, watching those videos with me and all, were they all fake?"

"I enjoyed it... because I thought that I finally had a friend after hundreds of years," the boy weakly said, hands shaking in both anger and sadness, "I really thought that you are my friend. I really do."

"You would've gotten a lot of friends if it wasn't for your shitty attitude. That's the reason why you keep getting thrown away," before Beomgyu could even stop himself, those words has already left his mouth and he couldn't do anything to take it back. The words were already out and Taehyun had already heard it. He could only widen his eyes as he realized what he said as the boy infront of him continued to crumple because of his words.

What's wrong with him? Why did he say that? He didn't mean it!

"Life inside the mirror is not easy, Beomgyu!" Taehyun yelled as he stomped towards Beomgyu, who immediately stepped back in response despite knowing that the boy is trapped, "When people first saw me, the first thing they said is that I was some kind of demon or ghost!"

Beomgyu remembered the words he spouted out to Taehyun during their first meeting and he suddenly feels guilty. Taehyun clenched his fists as he fixed his glare to the ground, unable to keep looking at Beomgyu even longer because if he does, then the pain inside his chest will grow stronger.

"For the first few years of me being inside this mirror, I tried you know! I tried to be friends with them! I kept calling out their names and pleaded with them to stay with me and keep trying to tell them that I'm harmless... that I am also a human."

"The first few years of me not realizing why they can't see me was hell, I was just so lonely until I managed to cope and get used to the feeling."

"But you, Choi Beomgyu," he says lowly as he looked up to meet his eyes, "You were able to see me and stood by me. I was able to call you my friend and that made me happier than ever."

Beomgyu's heart clenched. He was such an asshole to do this to Taehyun. Plus, him blowing up on him was unaccounted for.

His plan failed.

"But you failed to realize how different we are, how different our worlds are. You were able to see me but you don't even _see_ me."

"Beomgyu," Taehyun says, weakly, "Can't you _see_ me?"

"I do, Taehyun! I do, I can see you," he doesn't understand what Taehyun means by seeing him. Sure, he can see him, but what does he mean by _seeing_ him. If Beomgyu was clueless about what Taehyun had meant by that, then Taehyun is just too kind to not say anything about it.

"Doesn't matter now. I made your life hell, didn't I?" the brunette laughed bitterly as Beomgyu continued to stare at him, not knowing what to do, "Just because I stopped you from fucking a girl, wow. And I wonder why you were so affected by my words."

"Taehyun, I didn't really plan—"

"Shut up!" he yelled and punched the mirror, the one that separated him from Beomgyu's world. To both of their surprise, the mirror had cracked because of Taehyun's punch. One more punch and Beomgyu was sure that the mirror would break, shards would crash as Taehyun would be completely removed from his life.

Taehyun laughed, "It was this easy? I never thought I could rid of myself that easily!" he began to ready his fist again.

"No, Taehyun! You wanted to get out and get revenge right? Don't do that!"

"It's useless. I just don't want to feel pain anymore, I hate not being able to let out my emotions. I just hate it here," this is what Taehyun really felt. To hell with revenge, he just wanted to feel peace. He just wanted to live happily and peacefully while making other people happy because of him.

If the gods above are kind enough, maybe in his next life, he'll be able to live peacefully. Maybe become an idol like the groups that he watched in the videos. He can sing, he'd make it.

"Taehyun! Stop!"

Beomgyu's cry was unheard as Taehyun had already jerked his fist forward to meet the cracked area of the mirror. His closed his eyes as he felt his fist collide with the the glass, ready to feel the consequences of breaking the glass when he suddenly feels something warm that is currently bumping with his fist as he feels some glass shards dig into his skin despite feeling nothing.

Taehyun opened his eyes to meet Beomgyu's wide eyes that are filled with shock but his eyes weren't directed at him but at his fist.

His eyes slowly wandered towards his fist to see some small glass shards digging on to his fist, a tiny bit of blood seeping through the cuts but what surprised him isn't the injury he got but rather Beomgyu's outstretched hand that was placed infront of his fist, his palm stopping him from breaking the mirror in the first place.

Beomgyu was both confused and shocked at the same time. He had felt Taehyun's hand and it was warm... warm like how a person's hand would feel. He was about to open his mouth to ask Taehyun what this is all about but shut his mouth the moment he saw confusion on the younger's eyes.

After what it feels like an hour of silence (it was just a few seconds in reality), Taehyun opened his mouth to speak.

"What..." he started, "What did you do?"

"Uh... paper beats rock...?" Beomgyu spoke dumbly, not knowing what to say since he was also clueless like the boy.

Taehyun immediately retracted his fist and held it close to his chest and backed away slightly, looking at Beomgyu's palm who had some tiny glass shards on it which made it seem like it was sparkling. There was a little bit of blood on his palm which had informed the two of them that they did not hallucinate and that they both had touched each other.

"Beomgyu... hyung..." Taehyun started but then shook his head, "I don't want to see you," he continues as he turns his back towards the older.

"Taehyun, wait!" he calls out, hoping the the younger boy would stop and turn around and look at him.

But all he could see was his reflection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what does beomgyu mean by his plan failed? hmmm...
> 
> i'm back after being dead for like almost 3 weeks. there was kind of an issue here in our family because of the whole covid situation.
> 
> anyways, life has been tough for the past couple of weeks but i'll do my best to update quick! ㅠㅠ
> 
> 감사합니다!
> 
> ALSO!!! TXT'S COMEBACK IS SO AAHHH *chefs kiss*
> 
> i was almost bias wrecked by our lovely leader soobin, but i managed to stay loyal to taehyun ㅋㅋㅋㅋ im not gonne be swerving lanes anytime soon, he's still my bias ever since pre debut >ㅂ<


	5. I want to believe the words you said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: Sexual harassment!
> 
> i put an asterisk (*) at the start and end of it so you can skip it if you want.

Beomgyu is currently out drinking with his friends.

Well, they're not really drinking but they are just in some sort of party that his best friend Yeonjun had invited him and the others to (the boy has a ton of friends that Beomgyu couldn't even count).

After the events that had transpired in his room, the blonde has been avoiding his dorm room for the past 4 days, either staying at Yeonjun's dorm or passing out at a nearby 7-11 with the hopes of him not getting robbed while he was snoozing. He has been afraid to walk up to his room despite knowing the chances of Taehyun not showing himself and just stay hidden be 99.9% but it makes him anxious that the other could see him and that he can't.

Even if he can't see him, the hurt expression on Taehyun's face flashes right before his eyes and it makes him even more guilty. He couldn't even stay in his living room since he'd have such a sudden impulse to just go to his room and face the younger, which he doesn't have the guts to. He doesn't know what to say nor how to face the hurt ex-magician.

It should have worried him that Taehyun would hit the mirror again and just disappear but he knows that the brunette won't do it. He doesn't know why he has that kind of feeling. Maybe it's because he saw the confusion on the other's face when their hands touched and it made him think that there is still a chance that he can be free out of his eternal prison or he just wanted answers as to why that had happened.

Beomgyu frowns, he's hopeless and he knows that he fucked up big time.

Beomgyu sighs as he watches Soobin and Hueningkai talk besides him since they decided to make the couch their territory and hoped that some couple hadn't done "the thing" before they decided to lounge at the couch.

"Beomgyu-ah, is there something the matter? You've been kind of weird these past few days," Yeonjun asked as he sat besides him with a cup filled with some liquid in his hand as he glared at some guy who was making his way towards Beomgyu.

The other just shakes his head and gives his hyung a seemingly forced smile, "It's nothing, hyung."

"Gyu, I have known you for years now so don't try to fool me. Now tell me what happened for you to mope around?" the blue haired male asks as he places a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.

Beomgyu knew he could trust Yeonjun and that the older would sympathize with him and his worries but how can he tell him what happened without sounding like some crazy idiot? His hyung would probably think that he's crazy the moment he says that there is a person inside his mirror and he grew feelings for him but one day fought with him because he was stupid and felt his hand.

And that his hand felt really warm.

And that he really wanted to slot his fingers in between Taehyun's and just hold them and feel the warmth it gives, not just to his hand but inside too.

So, he stays silent for a bit as he turns his head to look at Soobin and Hueningkai who are probably having the time of their lives together without the need of alcohol in their system. He shifts his gaze towards Yeonjun who has his eyes fixed on Soobin as his lips turn into a frown when he sees the other laugh hard at one of their maknae's antics.

And so, an idea popped up inside his head.

"Uh, hyung," he starts and all traces of sadness disappeared from his best friend's face as he whips his head to look at Beomgyu, eager to listen to his worries, "I have a friend, his name is um–"

"Jeongin? That kid in your class?"

"Ah yeah!" he nods, feeling a bit guilty that he used his friend's name just to explain his personal dilemma, "He's umm, he got a crush on this person– his best friend actually and he doesn't know how to approach him."

Yeonjun cranes his neck before taking a sip of whatever is inside his cup that Beomgyu doesn't want to know, "Tell Jeongin to confess directly then, it's no no big deal," he says, shrugging afterwards.

"It's a big deal!" Beomgyu raises his voice which startles Yeonjun because of his sudden outburst, "It's a big deal," he repeats, softly and getting a bit embarrassed despite knowing that no one is going to pay attention with his yelling because hey, they are in some party.

"Yeah, sure..."

"The thing is I– I mean, Jeongin can't do that," he pouts as he looks around the place, observing the people that are getting shit-faced, "He tried to get him jealous, he got a girlfriend to make the guy jealous and–"

"Jeongin has a girlfriend?!" the other perks up at the news and this is Beomgyu's turn to become startled, "Oh man, why didn't Hyunjin tell me anything about that? I ought to ask–"

"N-no! You can't! Th-they already broke!" he reasoned as he grew panicked at the thought of Yeonjun asking Hyunjin, who is a very close friend of Jeongin, about his supposed girlfriend and exposing him as a liar. The older just gave him a suspicious look but shrugs it off as quick as he grew suspicious, "So uh, they suddenly got into a fight because Jeongin accidentally said something out of anger and his crush misunderstood him and now they aren't on speaking terms because Jeongin is too scared to confront him."

"Jeongin getting into a fight? Saying something out of anger? Are you sure that this is Jeongin we're talking about, he's not that kind of person to do that."

Beomgyu squeaks, "W-well, people change! So uh, what kind of advice do I have to give to him?"

Yeonjun hums, rubbing his chin with his free hand as he started to think deeply about the situation, "Why not wait for the other guy to confront Jeongin though? I'm sure that he would approach him because of their closeness."

"He can't approach Jeongin..."

The blue haired male raised an eyebrow at that, "Oh? Why can't he?"

"It's just that uh they bond over the internet, the guy is not from here, y'know?"

"Mhmm, I see. Where is he though?"

"Hyung, am I the one that is gonna give answers now?"

Yeonjun lets out a laugh at the younger who just pouts at him and immediately snaps his mouth shut when he hears Soobin and Hueningkai laugh over something. Beomgyu stared at his blue haired hyung's face before glancing over the duo as he analyzed the situation.

He sort of knew that Yeonjun has a crush in their group of 4 but he couldn't pinpoint who. He initially thought that it was him at first and had been very happy since he had a secret crush on the oldest of them at that time but on one drunken night, Yeonjun had told Beomgyu that he saw him as a little brother that he never had and that broke all of Beomgyu's fantasies of being Yeonjun's lover and that they'd ride on a horse and gallop somewhere far away during their honeymoon.

He couldn't choose who between Soobin and Hueningkai since they both are Yeonjun's types. His hyung liked people that are tall (again, Beomgyu knew this way before the whole "little brother" incident but he thought he could change the older's mind because he apparently read that many stories and was confident he could be the short one that his hyung would grow to love) and both Hueningkai and Soobin are tall. His hyung likes soft people though he doesn't know if it's skin-soft or just soft soft.

"Ehem," Yeonjun clears his throat which snapped Beomgyu out of his thoughts, "Well, to be honest here, the fight is Jeongin's fault, am I correct?"

Beomgyu nods.

"Good to see you agree, I mean, what kind of stupid idiot would get a girlfriend just to make his crush get jealous? Seriously..."

Beomgyu nods, sweating.

"Jeongin has to be the one to approach the guy at this situation since he is at fault. He'd be a major asshole if he thinks that his crush should be the one to approach him. It's his fault, so he should be the bigger person here and man up. No matter the distance, he should be the one to apologize since he is at fault."

Beomgyu bites his lower lip, "But what if his friend doesn't want to see him?"

"Then it's up to him to go and find him, wherever that guy is at. Either be a dick and ditch him and find another crush or not be a dick and actually find a way to talk to your friend," Yeonjun answers in a way that has Beomgyu feeling as if his hyung knew that he was just using Jeongin's name and those advice are directed at him, "Though I suggest not to do the former since that is, like I said, a dick move. Feelings aside, you'll lose a pretty good friend if you do that."

"I see. Thank you, hyung," he says with a light smile, "I'll be sure to tell Jeongin that."

Instead of a "your welcome" or a "no problem," he receives a knowing grin from Yeonjun, "You sure you need to tell him that?"

Beomgyu promptly chokes on air at his hyung's words, "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

The blue haired male only shrugs, "Nothing. Anyways, wanna drink and let loose?"

"Uhh, won't Soobin-hyung get mad? He says that I shouldn't get too wasted."

"Eh? Who listens to him anyways and you're 19 for heaven's sake, Gyu! You got drunk like what only once? Let loose for a bit, buddy!"

Beomgyu contemplates for a bit before nodding. He'll remember his hyung's advice and do it in the future but for now, he has to let loose. If he does some stupid shit tonight, he knows that he could just blame Yeonjun for that so that Soobin would roast the older for supposedly "endangering" one of his baby.

"Sweet! Also, are you planning on changing your hair color or dyeing it again? Your roots are showing," Yeonjun pointed out which made the younger fish out his phone out of his pocket to open his camera and it was true, his hair has been growing and that his roots were showing. He liked the gradient effect it has but he figured it would be better if he changed it.

"Yeah, what about you, hyung?"

"Mhmm, I think that I'll stay blue for a while," he answers as he hands Beomgyu a cup of booze which he got from a girl that was offering some cups to him.

Beomgyu was about to nod and take a sip of the alcohol inside his cup until an idea suddenly popped inside his mind.

"Oh, alright. I think I overheard that Soobin-hyung liked the blonde color for a while but didn't have a chance to dye his hair and that Hyuka liked the color pink and like Soobin-hyung, he wanted to dye his hair but didn't have a chance to," he says nonchalantly and he internally smirks when he sees Yeonjun pause when he was relaying the information to him.

The older whips his head to squint his eyes in suspicion at Beomgyu, who is interested at the ceiling at the moment.

"What am I going to do with the information you just blurted out?"

"I don't know, only you know."

"Brat."

"I know you love me, hyung."

Yeonjun rolls his eyes at that as he takes another sip but Beomgyu knows that he is currently digesting the "information" given to him.

* * *

Taehyun is confused.

He has been staring at his hand that he used to punch the mirror for a while now, the feeling of warmth never leaving his hand.

The brunette kept replaying the events that had happened four days ago inside his head, trying to find the answer as to why the hell he felt that.

He punched the mirror and it cracked.

His hand has damaged.

He was about to punch the mirror but was stopped by Beomgyu.

His palm bumped against his fist.

His palm felt warm.

The warmth spread throughout his body.

Then, he fled.

Not actually fled but he just went invisible in the eyes of the blonde. He hasn't seen the blonde for four days now too. Did he scare him? Was he planning on moving dorms? He can't tell.

Taehyun is still a bit angry at the blonde because of the words he used to accuse him. As far as he knows, he hasn't done anything to ruin the older's life (he knows that his sassy attitude makes him look like an ass, but that's about it--- it doesn't ruin lives, it just pisses people off). He's also mad at how the older made him feel like he was being cared--- made him feel like he is a real friend of his, only to be yelled at and indirectly called as a liability to him, someone that needed pity because he was trapped in the mirror.

He feels so many things right now and it irritates him that he can only think and feel those feelings because he is unable to express it much like his throat is dry but he isn't thirsty or that his eyes are heavy but he isn't sleepy.

It's just so annoying that it makes him want to punch the mirror and just disappear.

But he can't.

Not until he knows the reason why he was able to feel the human's hand.

He isn't dumb, he knows that if his mirror breaks then it's over for him. He once had witnessed another human trapped inside a mirror having his mirror broken, the shards falling down to the floor. The man inside the mirror immediately disappeared as if he was zapped by light and then was never to be seen again.

Taehyun actually tried to take one of the broken shards off the mirror (the small shards that were embedded on his fist suddenly disappeared and he doesn't even have a single clue as to why that happened) so that he could maybe study it despite having no items to aid him in his study but when he tried to pull out a shard, his body felt like it was being electrocuted and for the first time in years, he felt pain.

Pulling one shard out of the mirror means that it is an instant game over for him but as much as he wanted to yank it out, take a risk or something, he doesn't want to.

Now that he felt pain again, he doesn't want to feel it again.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asks to no one in particular and internally berates himself for asking such a stupid question to absolutely no one. The blonde is nowhere to be found and he doesn't know when he is going to come back, Toto is asleep since it's night time and it's just him in the mirror inside the dark and lonely bedroom of his friend, love interest, whatever, he doesn't know if he can call him that now.

The situation he is in right now is similar to the times when he was at some junk shop waiting to be sold or at a garbage bin, waiting for someone to snoop in and take him out. Although he is in a different place, a place much better than a garbage bin, the feeling is all too the same and familiar.

It's depressing.

Taehyun sighs and brings his knees up to his chest, encircling his arms around it and shuts his eyes, begging for everything to be a dream just like he always did for the past hundreds of years, only this time, his hand is throbbing in pain.

He hears the door to the dorm opening and he wills himself to ignore it.

'Maybe he is just hungry or something, fetch what he needs then he'll leave,' he thinks but that was proven false when he hears heavy footsteps, footsteps that don't really sound like Beomgyu's, nearing the bedroom.

The door then creaks open, the light from outside seeping inside the dark room and Taehyun gingerly lifts his head from behind his knees just to see a lil bit clearly.

What he saw wasn't Beomgyu though--- well, it is Beomgyu--- but there was a different man that had the blonde's arm slung over his neck as the man walked him over to the bed. Once they neared the bed, he let go of his grip on his hyung which made him walk in his place dizzily before flopping face first down on the bed.

"Is he drunk?" Taehyun mutters to himself, looking at the boy's sleeping figure with distaste, "He is really an idiot. Can't wait to tell him---"

He stops.

He can't tell him.

It's already over for the both of them.

He sighs as he watches the guy trying to tell him to change his clothes or something. After a while, the guy sighs in defeat as he headed towards the door again, light illuminating the man's face.

Now that he's seen his face clearly, he realizes that this guy is new. He isn't the one with blue hair nor the baby faced one who stepped inside Beomgyu's room one time then rushes outside to stay at the hallway nor the freakishly tall guy who looked like an innocent rabbit.

"He has a lot of friends, huh," he sighs, knowing that he is just one of Beomgyu's easily replaceable "friends". Why did he even think that he was special? Of course the guy has a ton of friends... friends that aren't trapped inside the mirror for all eternity.

* The man suddenly stops on his tracks as he slowly turns his head towards the direction of the sleeping Beomgyu and suddenly, something not nice had settled at the pit of Taehyun's stomach.

It feels like the man has some kind of aura that made Taehyun feel like he was dangerous and that frightened him.

Taehyun gulps as he looked at the man's eyes as he sees something inside his eyes that he doesn't want to see.

He could've swore that the man's eyes flickered to something indecipherable and it sent shivers down through Taehyun's spine, what if he was planning to---

Before Taehyun could even finish his deductions, the man stalks towards the bed and a ton of alarms started ringing inside Taehyun's head.

Oh fuck.

"Beomgyu-ah," the man says breathlessly as he climbs on top of the bed and crawls towards the still sleeping boy, "I always wondered how you looked like when you were asleep."

Taehyun immediately stood up, panicking. This guy is a pervert! A hella weird one! How the fuck did Beomgyu even pick him up--- no--- how the fuck is he friends with him?! It's hella weird to wonder how someone looks like when they are sleeping (but it is even weirder to look at someone who is asleep which Taehyun is guilty of but hey, it isn't like he did that on purpose!)

"Your skin looks very soft," the man says as he hovers above Beomgyu, his eyes scanning over his body like what a predator would do to his prey, "And it is also soft too," he says as he trails his fingers up and down Beomgyu's arm as he leans closer to nose at his hair.

Okay, as much as he wanted to imagine himself as that guy on top of Beomgyu (well fuck, he still likes the asshole even though the words he said were hurtful), he has to stop this man from molesting the idiot.

"Beomgyu! Beomgyu!" he yells but the blonde stayed asleep, even nuzzling his face on to the pillow.

The man on top of him grins at Beomgyu with a predatory face as his eyes raked his sleeping form from head to toe that Taehyun wanted nothing but to puke.

Taehyun started to grow more frantic and scared of the situation so he turned towards the sleeping bird, "Toto! Toto! Wake up! Your owner needs you! Please!"

But like his owner, the bird stayed asleep.

"Wonder how it would feel if I were to mark you up? Would you feel it in your dreams?" the man whispers as he ghosts his lips over his neck and Taehyun momentarily freezes before he snaps himself out.

"Beomgyu!" he yells as he has no choice but to bang his fists on the mirror, in a way that he hopes that Beomgyu could hear with the force he expends that wouldn't break the mirror, "Beomgyu, wake up you fucking asshole!"

"You're so pretty, Beomgyu-ah..."

"Beomgyu!" he yelps when he feels his body getting zapped by electricity since the vibration of his attempts in making sounds from the mirror is shaking the broken shards. He is at risk at having his shards slip out of the mirror and poof him out of existence but he can't possibly think about that right now, not when his friend– if they are still friends– is being harassed!

"Beomgyu! Wake--" "zzzap!" "Wake up, hyung! Goddamn--" "zzzap!" "I'm calling you---" "zzzap!" "Hyung now! So please, wake---" "zzzap!" "Up!"

His body is getting more numb as the zaps continously attack his body and he knows that he'll disappear if he takes anymore but he can't stop, no matter how painful it is. He might end up sacrificing himself for his asshole crush but even if he was a dick and treated him like shit, he doesn't deserve to be harassed and Taehyun actually wants to be the one to get back at him.

On one last spurt of his energy, he hits the mirror and yells:

"WAKE THE FUCK UP, CHOI BEOMGYU!"

The man on top of Beomgyu flinches and Toto jolts awake, squawking which had alarmed the man. Beomgyu's eyes snapped open which made Taehyun instantly smile but then grit his teeth when the familiar shock ran throughout his body, wearing him out and making collapse to the ground.

The blonde's eyes found him which made him question if he turned himself invisible or not but by the look of horror he had on his face, he thinks its the latter.

Beomgyu moved to try to get off the bed but then felt something heavy on top of him. In an instant, he flipped them over only to be shocked that it was the guy earlier at the party who was eyeing him that was on top of him. His brain was still a little woozy because of the alcohol inside his system but he still has some sense inside of him because his mind started telling him that this guy was dangerous and so, he punched him in the face and threw him to the ground.

* The man immediately scrambled up and ran out of his room, slamming the door shut. After a few seconds, he can hear the front door open and shut which made him let out a sigh of relief.

He was about to fall back to his bed and sleep when he realized that someone had called him and--- Taehyun!

He practically jumped out of bed and headed towards the mirror in drunken fashion as he trips over his own foot only to land in front of the mirror, face-to-face with Taehyun, who is also on the floor.

"Are you okay?" he asks, trying not to slur his words.

"Does it look like I am?!" Taehyun snaps at him, "This wouldn't have happened if you didn't bring such a sketchy guy, for fuck's sake, Beomgyu!"

"Why did you wake me up?"

"Because that guy was about to harass you! Of course, I am still mad though I cannot express it but you still deserved more than to have someone have their way with you! I'd rather have you beat up than that!"

Taehyun glares at the blonde as he tries to push himself up which is proven to be useless since his body is still numb from the electrocution but his breath immediately seizes when the older gives him a smile.

"You are really kind, thank you."

"Wh---"

"I don't know why you look like you are in pain or how you got to that point but I guess it's because you we're trying to save me."

"Of course you peanut brained fucking piece of fried lettuce---"

Beomgyu just giggles drunkenly at him, "You have a foul mouth but you are kind."

"Shut up! I am in so much pain right now I---"

"And you are pretty cute too."

"---want to choke and--- wh-what?!" Taehyun splutters as he heard those words come out of the blonde's mouth.

"You know, you are kind of like my type. Yeonjun-hyung and I talked about types earlier when we were wasted and---"

Hold on, hold on, what is this turn of events? Nevermind that, it's just the alcohol talking right? It's probably false.

"And when I was telling mine, I didn't even know I had a type until I knew I was describing you."

Taehyun's face became flushed right now and he desperately wanted to cover his face but he can't since his arms won't move.

"Cute eyes, bright smile, brown hair, it could be anyone else but I thought of you."

"Sh-shut up! You're drunk!" he stutters as he tried to glare at the older, make his point across that he's mad but he can't, especially when his heart is thundering right now.

People talk a lot when they are drunk and he knows better than to believe the words that his drunk hyung is saying but... people always say that the words the come out of drunk people's mouth are always true.

He is conflicted.

Thank god Beomgyu decided to snap his mouth shut and for a while, he thinks that the other is about to fall asleep when he rolls over to his back and was about to let out a sigh of relief when the other talked.

"Y'know, hyungie told me somethin'," he slurred.

Taehyun sighs sadly, "Beomgyu-hyung, go to---"

"He says that if you wronged someone, you should be the one to say sorry, no matter the distance between you two."

Taehyun stops and stares at him.

Beomgyu stares at the ceiling, eyes half-lidded, "And I know I said stupid shit to you and the things that I wanted to say did not come out in the way that I wanted to."

"And so, I hurt you."

Taehyun really wanted to snort at that, maybe say "no shit," but his mouth stayed shut.

"I didn't know how to face you so I was scared of going back here to talk to you but before I could do anything, you, I dunno, risked your life to save me from being molested by that creepy guy."

"No shit," he finally says.

Beomgyu laughs at that, taking no offense and his laugh made Taehyun's heart clench and it seemed like all his anger towards his hyung disappeared.

"I don't know how to repay you for that but Hyunie," he says, slipping out the endearing nickname which made Taehyun choke on air, "I did not mean what I said--- you're not a liability, y'know? You didn't make my life hell kind of hell, it's more like uhh, ever since you came, my life came crashing down?"

"It still means the same, just not with the same words," he frowns.

"No, I mean that I had a hard time with life because my mind has been plagued with thoughts of you," he laughs.

Oh.

_Oh._

What?

Beomgyu continues, not seeing the look of shock on the other's face, "I can't focus on anything because I always think about going home early to see you, to spend time with you and well, it's like hell since I can't do anything about it."

"Beomgyu, what---"

"It's hyung to you, idiot," he says as he moves his head to look at Taehyun with such a fond gaze which made him look away, "I know that I'm already rejected, seeing as you can't really feel things. I was doomed from the start."

Is he hearing this right?

Beomgyu?

Has feelings for him?!

Him?!

Kang Taehyun?!

"But," the other continues which made him pause his internal panicking for a bit.

"Even so, I still want to touch your hand again if possible--- maybe hold it properly," he says as he looks at the ceiling and raises both of his hands, locking them with each other, "Intertwining them like this. Wanna feel the warmth again."

He then rolls over to the side to look at Taehyun as he raises a hand and places it at the mirror on the spot where Taehyun's cheek at which made the brunette confused.

"Wanna feel your pretty face, feel how warm it is," he says and if Beomgyu was sober right now, Taehyun was sure that he would confess his feelings immediately.

But this Beomgyu is a drunk Beomgyu and he knows better than to trust a drunk person. He's just going to ask the said person when he wakes up just to be clear of everything.

He knows that the older would forget about the things he said but what else can he do?

"Mhm sleepy..." the blonde murmurs before his hand slid down to the floor as his eyes fluttered shut. In a few seconds, the boy was sound asleep.

"At least move to your bed, idiot," he softly whispers as he gazes at the sleeping Beomgyu, a soft smile plastered on his lips.

Even though Beomgyu's words were fake, he'll still live off on that dream that his words were real and that the boy really had feelings for him.

* * *

Beomgyu woke up sore all over his body as he found himself on the floor. He doesn't know what happened last night but all he can remember is Yeonjun's advice, him getting shitfaced, him talking to some guy about puppies and the next thing was all a blur.

He slowly sat up, still feeling achy all over his body, his back even more! He cranes his neck to look at the clock perched on the wall to see that it was already 10am. He has no classes in the morning so he can still spend his time resting since he practically has a hangover.

"Ughhh... I'm not drinking again," he says as he clutches his head in pain.

"You better live up to that promise."

He flinches when he hears that familiar voice and slowly turns his head to see Taehyun, eyes trained on the deck of cards on his hand as he played with them.

Beomgyu suddenly grows shy at the presence of the ex-magician and when he realized that he practically slept in front of the mirror--- in front of him--- he feels his face getting warmer and he is sure that his face can rival a tomato now.

But if he slept on the ground, it can mean that he rolled out of bed (though he would have felt it when he was asleep and would immediately ger up), fell down on the floor once he got to his room or did some stupid shit in front of Taehyun.

He thinks its the third one.

"Uhh, Taehyun..." he calls and the other merely hums at his call. His eyes settle at the boy's injury on the knuckles of his fingers which made his heart beat fast, remembering the warmth that he felt when they got contact with each other, "Did I do anything uhh, stupid?"

"Nothing much but yeah, you did stupid things," the brunette shrugs, eyes not leaving the deck of cards.

"I see."

"Though I have questions for you," the boy continues and anxiety starts to seize the blonde's heart. What kind of questions will Taehyun ask him?

Beomgyu just nods at his words, afraid to speak since he knows that his voice would quiver.

Before Taehyun could even open his mouth, they heard knocking on the door. They both exchanged glances, staying silent until the brunette shrugs and jerks his head towards the door as if telling him that they can talk later and he should open the door.

Beomgyu nods and hastily stands up which made him dizzy, limbs clumsily flailing around and about as he tried to balance himself.

Once he miraculously made his way towards the front door without any injuries, he opens it to find Yeonjun, hair now blonde, with a plastic bag in hand.

"Wh--- hyung!" he gasps because oh lord, his best friend really looked hot with the blonde hair.

"Figured I might try it out," he coolly says, shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal and Beomgyu would've believed it if not for the light pink blush on the older's cheeks, "Anyways, that is not what I am here for."

Beomgyu smirks, "Oh? Then what is it?"

"First, I got you pills, some water and hangover soup for you," he says as he steps inside and makes his way towards the couch in the living room. Beomgyu closes the door and moves towards Yeonjun, gladly taking the pill inside his mouth and popping it inside, taking big gulps of water out of the water bottle inside Yeonjun's plastic bag. Yeonjun takes out the bowl of soup that is covered with a lid and hands it over to Beomgyu along with a spoon.

"Alright, as you drink your soup, I want you to answer me, Beomgyu."

"Alright. Shoot," he urges as he opens the lid and dips the spoon in, taking in a spoonful before putting it inside his mouth and letting out a "delicious!"

"You know you can tell me anything right, Gyu?" Yeonjun asks and Beomgyu nodded.

"Yup, and I trust you a lot, hyung!" he answers as he takes another spoonful of soup.

"Good, now," the now blonde Yeonjun clears his throat before continuing, "I talked to Hyunjin and asked him if Jeongin had a girlfriend or had a crush."

Beomgyu almost spat his soup out but he ended up choking.

"And he said no, he doesn't have a girlfriend, not even an ex and that he has a crush on a senior named Bang Chan."

"What about it?" Beomgyu asks, trying to keep his cool.

"And I know for sure that Chan-hyung, is not some guy who lives far away from here. In fact, his dorm room is right next to mine and we talk alot."

"O-okay...? So?"

"So, I want you to tell me the reason why you used Jeongin to cover up something that you are obviously going through. Plus, you were so obvious last night but I felt bad for you so I decided to play along."

"You're a jerk!"

Yeonjun lets out a slight laugh before pursing his lips, "I know but, Beomgyu. Please tell me, I'm worried about you."

Beomgyu puts down the spoon inside the bowl as his stomach churns at the thought of Yeonjun knowing everything and maybe just mocking him and telling him that he is insane. He is conflicted, he doesn't know what to do but...

He looks up and glances at the door leading up to his room before he sighs and faces Yeonjun. It feels like he could trust his hyung and if Yeonjun laughs at him because of his supposed craziness, he can thwack him in the face to show that he is serious.

"Fine," he speaks and the blonde smiled at that, excited to hear everything, "But it is quite a long story, are you sure that you wanna hear it?"

"Don't worry, I got all the time in the world for now."

"Alright then. So, everything first started when I went to a shop to buy a mirror..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehet im back ^^
> 
> also, stream stray kids god's menu (goddamn han jisung keeping me loyal over since pre-debut) and seventeen left and right (woozi is keeping me in his lane ever since adore u era) because the songs are *chef's kiss*.


	6. Where is he?

"So, you're telling me," Yeonjun starts as he tries to summarize what the blonde had said, despite how ridiculous it sounded, "You bought a mirror, you hurt yourself and some of your blood splattered on the mirror which made a boy suddenly appear inside of it and he has plans to kill his bloodline so you have this 'I'm a hero' shit coursing through your blood and you plan on keeping him, fell in love with him, fought with him, and then did some stupid things that you don't know of when you were drunk last night?"

Beomgyu nods with a serious expression on his face despite his hand that was holding a spoonful of soup visibly shaking.

The now-blonde just sighs and rubs his face, "Okay, I know that your story is far-fetched but I know that you aren't that crazy to lie about something so err..."

"Unbelievable? Insane? Stupid?" Beomgyu supplies.

"Absurd is the word I'm looking for. Anyways, is this "Kang Taehyun" guy really real? As much as I want to believe you, I can't bring myself to believe that this guy even exists," the older boy sighs as he leans back on the couch, ruffling his hair.

Beomgyu immediately stands up, grabs his hyung's wrist and drags him out of the couch which surprised Yeonjun as the younger started to dash towards his room, "I'll show you! He's real!"

"Oh boy."

* * *

Yeonjun stares at his confused reflection with a fidgety Beomgyu besides him. In the mirror, Taehyun stares at Yeonjun with also a confused expression on his face.

"So... this is Kang Taehyun?" he says after staying silent for a few seconds as he tries to look interested as he inspects the mirror, "I don't know, all I see is a handsome man called Choi Yeonjun and a delusional midget named Choi Beomgyu."

"I am not a midget—"

"You're not bothering on correcting "delusional", I see," Yeonjun smirked which prompted the blonde to yell and try to wrestle him.

"Okay, if I am not mistaken, you told this tall blonde coconut all about me because he is literally right in front of me and is calling my name," Taehyun speaks up as he studies the tall blonde that is currently holding both of Beomgyu's wrists with one hand.

The said person yanks his wrists off in one not so swift motion before replying, "Yup, I did. His name is Choi Yeonjun, my best pal."

"Who are you talking to, Beom?" Yeonjun asked as he looked at the shorter blonde coconut with a puzzled expression.

"I'm talking to Taehyun, the guy in the mirror. How about you introduce yourself, hyung?"

The taller chokes on his spit, "Introduce myself to what? I am literally face-to-face with my own reflection."

"That doesn't matter because Taehyun is there! Inside the mirror!"

The said brunette in the mirror just giggles, "No offense but, he'll look stupid if he's just going to introduce himself to his reflection."

"He won't, Taehyun!"

Obviously creeped out, Yeonjun decides to go with the flow and introduce himself to his reflection, hoping that Beomgyu is going to let him leave if he does, "My name is Choi Yeonjun and uhhh, pleasure to meet you, I guess... Mr. Kang Taehyun? If you are there."

"Don't be so formal, hyung! He's younger than both of us."

The younger instantly laughed after Yeonjun's introduction, clutching his stomach as he laughed his guts off, "Oh my god, that's so stupid– I can't believe he introduced himself to his reflection! The both of you share the same stupid braincell!"

"He's not stupid and neither am I... well he's stupid, but not that much!"

"Beomgyu, I'm getting a little creeped out with you yelling at yourself. This mirror is also creeping me out," Yeonjun spoke in a worried tone, eager to get out of this situation.

Beomgyu hummed for a while before he suddenly thought of an idea, "Hyung! Wait there, I'll be back!"

Taehyun watches Beomgyu run out of the room before he places his sight on the new face. The man looks handsome with his face that is resembling a fox though Taehyun could say that he is much more handsome than his blonde friend.

The blonde– Yeonjun– suddenly grabbed the mirror's sides which startled Taehyun. The man started to lean the mirror left and right as he craned his neck side to side trying to see what was behind the mirror. He let go of the mirror and took a step back to study the mirror again.

"Beomgyu doesn't look like he was lying that someone is here but I don't see anyone else other than my reflection," the tall blonde hummed as his eyes scanned the mirror up and down.

"You can't see me because I don't have your DNA so unless you spit on me, which is kind of gross, you can't see me," Taehyun said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone but immediately facepalmed upon knowing what he had done, "Nor hear me. This reflective glass doesn't stop stupidity from seeping through and infecting me."

Taehyun suddenly felt a sudden jolt of pain coursing through his body which made him drop his hand immediately to see Yeonjun poking at the crack on the mirror.

"I swear to god if this idiot is the reason I disappear—" he was abruptly cut off when he felt another jolt of pain as the other started picking on the glass shards.

"Stop it, you fuㅡ"

"Yeonjun-hyung!"

The familiar voice yelled which stopped the tall blonde from continuing on picking on the shards of glass on the mirror, which made Taehyun let out a sigh a relief only to swallow a scream when he sees what Beomgyu was holding.

"Why do you have a knife?!" Yeonjun yelled, raising both his hands up in surrender as he slowly steps to the side until he is pressed up against the window, most likely planning his escape.

The shorter blonde blinked in confusion before looking at the knife and immediately put the knife on the ground, "Wait, hyung! It's for you too see him!" he says, looking at Taehyun as if he wanted the other to tell him that he's doing good.

The brunette facepalms which made him panic.

"No, you will not stab yourself but with the knife, you can help him _see_ you," he tries to explain but his explanation got even more weirder so he panics even more.

"What do you mean by _see_?! Tell me now or else I will jump out of this window!" Yeonjun barks back, horrified. The only thing that is inside his mind is that Beomgyu has gone batshit insane and is wanting him to harm himself just so he can see his imaginary friend and the window is the only way for him to evade the boy.

Meanwhile, the boy inside the mirror is currently amused at the scene despite having second hand embarrassment.

Beomgyu inhales and then exhales, trying to calm himself down before clasping his hands and saying, "Hyung, you can't see Taehyun because you need to have some of your DNA on him."

"DNA..?" his friend gives him a confused look as he stopped himself from opening the windows, his brain forgetting that the younger talked to him about that earlier.

"Yes, you need to have your blood or even saliva on the mirror for you to see him, y'know, the DNA thing I told you back at the living room. That's why I brought this knife," he says with a smile as he bent down to get and show his knife.

This time, it was Yeonjun who facepalmed, "Gyu, I could have just licked the mirror or something, you didn't need to bring a knife to scare me and possibly, your mirror friend."

"Yeah but I have a feeling that Taehyun does not want to be licked..." he responds, looking at the mirror to see Taehyun with an obnoxiously disgusted face when the word "licked" came out."

The taller sighs before calmly walking towards Beomgyu but immediately stops when the younger suddenly shouts which startled both of him and the brunette inside the mirror, not that he could see him anyways.

"Are you alㅡ"

"Hyung! I forgot that I have work today!" he shrieks before running towards his cabinet and pulled on the doors so quick that Yeonjun was afraid that the wobbling cabinet would have fallen on the frantic boy, "I need to go! In the meantime, make friends with Taehyun!"

The older splutters as the younger began stripping himself while Taehyun wolf whistles at the back despite his reddened cheeks.

"Woah, giving him a strip tease?"

"I am NOT giving him a strip tease and never will I! Even if the world is ending!" he snaps back at the cackling ex-magician.

"First of all, rude, many people want to give me a strip tease more than me wanting to strip tease for Soobin," Yeonjun rolls his eyes before continuing to speak before the younger would scream that he had just said that he would rip his clothes off for Soobin, "Second, I am honestly scared that and I really want to put you in a mental hospital now."

"Yeah! You should!" the brunette yells.

"Shut up, Taehyun! He can't hear you!" he yells at the mirror which made Yeonjun back away from him again.

He buttons his polo shirt on before putting on his cute hat with a burger logo on it, "Anyways, hyung, I'm telling you that I'm not crazy! Justㅡ just do what I told you and you'll see that Taehyun is real!"

"I don't know if I should believe that."

"I need to go, I'll be back in a few hours! Bye hyung! Bye Taehyun!" he waves before running out the door in such speed and coming back to glare at Yeonjun.

"And oh, don't come out of my dorm if you don't make friends with Taehyun."

Then, he moves his glare at a smirking Taehyun.

"And you, behave! Don't act like a brat!" he says before speeding off for good this time.

Yeonjun sighs before facing the mirror, examining it again, "If this is a prank, I don't know if Beomgyu would take it this far. Maybe this Taehyun guy is real."

"I am one hundred percent real, Mr. I-Am-Made-Of-90%-Legs," the boy scoffs.

"Should I be really spitting on this mirror? Not only does it sound absurd, but it's like I'm spitting at my own beautiful face," he laughs as he took a step back to pose aggressively, making a bunch of duck faces.

While Yeonjun is enjoying his mini posing show, Taehyun on the other hand is disgusted, "Ugh, please stop, this is making me cringe."

After a painful minute, Yeonjun stops posing (to Taehyun's relief) and blows a kiss on his reflection, in which the ex-magician grimaced and dodged the invisible kiss.

"Anyways, I am not putting my saliva on this beautiful mirror. It's just disgusting!"

"Yeah, good thing you knㅡ hey, hey!" Taehyun yelps as his surroundings started shaking which made him stumble to the ground. He looked at the area in front of him to find him looking at the top of the cabinet in which he hadn't been able to do.

It takes him a moment to realize that this friend of Beomgyu is removing him from his place and lifting him upwards in which he is terrified since the blonde might slip on his hold and send him crashing down and disappearing.

"Hey! Put me down! What are you doing, you brute?!" he yells even if he knows that it is no use as the older male shakes the mirror.

"Hmm, nothing inside the mirror either," Yeonjun sighs before inspecting it sideways and looking at its back. He stopped when he saw some kind of tape at the back with Japanese writing and so he walked towards the bed and put the mirror face down on the bed.

"It's so dark! What the hell is this guy doing?!" Taehyun yells, kind of glad that the shaking stopped but he still feels ticked off because of the darkness before he feels a tingly sensation around him.

"Wh-what is happening?!" he panics as he looks at his hands that was slowly disintegrating before looking at the broken part of the mirror, scared that the mirror finally broke.

But the feeling is different, it's not painful and shocking but this time it felt good like something inside him has been released, like the rope that tied him up has been loosened and now, it feels like he can breathe fresh air.

His lungs suddenly became clearer and full of air and an unknown yet familiar feeling suddenly crept up inside of him, his eyes getting wet.

"Wh-what is this?" he stutters as he reaches to touch his eyes with what was left of his arm to feel something wet.

"Tears?" he murmurs, shocked that after thousands of years, a single tear had fallen from his eyes.

But how can this be? He was cursed!

Before he could think of anything else, the voice of man on top of him stopped his train of thoughts.

"Alright, I'm going to rip this off nice and clean!"

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!"

The last thing Taehyun heard was a loud rip before white engulfed his sight. 

* * *

"I wonder how Taehyun and Yeonjun-hyung are doing right now," Beomgyu hums happily, skipping his way to the dorms with a bag of burgers and soft drinks and a newly dyed black hair.

Beomgyu wanted to go home earlier but he wanted to buy his hyung some food in exchange for taking care of his drunk self and on his way home, he caught the sight of the hair salon that he always ignored but when he saw the poster that said 50% off in hair dyeing, he immediately went in to dye his hair.

It took him a while but maybe Yeonjun finally did what he told him to and maybe he's enjoying his time with Taehyun?

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but Beomgyu is hopeful and positive and hopes that that is what happened and his friend didn't throw himself out of the window just to escape.

He arrives at his dorm to find Yeonjun's shoes missing to which he sighed in disappointment.

"He really left, huh..." he frowns, feeling disappointment but tries to shrug it off and started thinking of positive things, "Oh well, I'll just eat these burgers on my own and maybe make Taehyun feel envious."

He puts the plastic bag filled with food on the living room table before he enters his dorm room and makes his way upstairs, greeting Toto who was just chilling downstairs inside his cage before opening the door and stepping inside.

Good thing Beomgyu left his food on the living room because he fell down on the floor out of shock on what he saw.

The mirror was now lying at the side, next to his bed, shattered and bent and on the floor is a shaking Yeonjun that covered himself with Beomgyu's bedsheets.

Beomgyu began hyperventilating with the thought of Taehyun disappearing from this world because of the sight of the broken mirror.

The two of them make eye contact for a while before the older spoke.

"You dyed your hair black?"

"Why did you break the mirror?!" he immediately responds and he knows Yeonjun knew how panicked and scared he was just because of the tone of his voice.

"I didn't break the mirror!"

"Then what broke it? Taehyun's gone, hyung! Oh my god, he's gone! He'sㅡ"

"He's not gone, Beomgyu!" he looked up when he felt hands grabbing his shoulders and he immediately turned red upon seeing what the older wore.

The older wore nothing.

"Why are you naked?!" he shrieks as he pushes him off, "Cover yourself up, pervert!"

"I am covering myself up, dumbass!" Yeonjun snaps back, "I now know that Taehyun is real but you didn't tell me that your friend can literally manhandle me and tear off my clothes!"

"Tear off your clothes?!" Beomgyu shrieked even louder, not sure if he is jealous or horrified that Taehyun tore off Yeonjun's clothes from him because the older really had quite some muscles on him so it would be hard to even wrestle and pin down Yeonjun, much more tear his clothes off of him... well, then again, the younger had huge muscles on his arms that he envied so maybe it doesn't seem impossible after all. It still doesn't change the fact that Beomgyu is 'jealourified' if that is even a word.

"He didn't do anything to me, idiot!" he yells back, gripping on the bedsheets covering him tightly, "He stole my clothes and immediately ran off!"

"He ran off?"

"Yeah!"

"How did he get out..?" the newly raven haired boy asked, confused until he remembered...

'No,' he whispered to himself, eyes growing wide.

"I tore off that sticker behind the mirror and he suddenly popped out of the mirror! The mirror broke and I fell on top of him and he immediately started clawing at me," Yeonjun explained the best as he could at the stupefied Beomgyu, "The jerk stole my clothes and then ran off after an hour of us fighting. Whenever I would say something to him, he'd just shout... does he even understand human communication?"

"Shit, hyung! Why did you tear off the seal?! It was to keep him from getting out!"

"Oh, so that's what it was... anyways, why don't you want him out? The boy was feral as fuck when I accidentally let him out, he probably wanted to be free for quite a while."

He shrieks, "That's the thing! He is an evil magician who wants to kill his entire family's bloodline and maybe the wizard that trapped him inside the mirror! I even told you that back at the living room, idiot!"

"Iㅡ oh..." the naked blonde could only blink in realization, "Well, I fucked up."

"I'm going to find him!" Beomgyu declared, "Hyung, you can borrow some of my large clothes! Just wash them and bring them over tomorrow! I'll leave you a burger and a coke at the living room because I'll be bringing the rest of the burgers with me!" he says before running out.

"Okay, but make it two burgers!" Yeonjun yells as he stands up and makes his way to the cabinet, satisfied when he hears a loud 'fiiine'.

After putting Yeonjun's two burgers down and one large coke, he grabs the plastic bag with 3 more burgers and one large coke inside it and runs out of his dorm, on a quest to find the lost magician who just stole his friend's clothes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, i finally updated this book after so long. after finally battling my modules and money, i finally had the time to publish this. thank you to those who are still following this stoy, i appreciate the love and support you guys are giving me in my stories! ^^


	7. It's Okay to Change

Surprise.

That was the first thing that came crashing down on Taehyun the moment he was kicked out of the mirror, finding himself pressed down against the bed with something heavy on top of his back.

Sure, he felt a slight wave of euphoria wash over him when he felt the softness of the bed under him, telling him that he actually outside of the mirror now.

But that feeling immediately subsided when he felt a sudden rush of anger go inside him.

He was utterly confused. Why was he feeling this way? Why was he so angry? What led him to be feeling this way? He should be happy that he finally got out of the mirror he was trapped in, so why isn't he?

He looked at the his hands that were clenching the bedsheets, his hands shaking in anger.

Then he realized something odd.

Wasn't he wearing his blazer when he was inside the mirror? Why isn't he wearing his blazer now?

His eyes trailed downwards and almost shrieked.

His clothes were gone.

His clothes were gone.

His clothes were gone.

...

His clothes were gone?!

Taehyun immediately shrieked and pushed whatever was on top of him, the mirror and something else that is heavier than the mirror before grabbing the bedsheets and spinning it around himself for cover, not paying attention to his 300 year old home that he just threw at the side.

He was confused as to what happened to his clothes until he realized the curse that was put on to him by the wizard. Ever since he was cursed to live inside the mirror, he had always wondered why he isn't growing old nor growing weaker as years passed by. He wondered if he'd be able to live forever inside the mirror without ageing or what happens to him if he managed to escape the mirror somehow.

He kept thinking about it and worrying about it until he lost hope in getting out of the mirror, lowkey accepting his fate to be inside the mirror forever.

Truth be told, Taehyun was afraid that his skin would shrivel up like a prune and die of instant old age the moment he realized he was out of the mirror.

He was really relieved when his body stayed the same, too relieved to even think about his clothes.

His clothes might have disintegrated since he was wearing it for more or less 300 hundred years. Maybe clothes were not an exception to the no old age thing because of the curse.

If the wizard had foreseen that he was going to be set free, not minding when or how, he had made it sure that his clothes would wither once he came out because it would be really old.

The wizard really wanted to fuck him over one last time when he got out. That's how despicable that guy was. He didn't apply an old age curse to him just so that he'd be humiliated the moment he got outside.

"Wh-what..."

A voice snaps Taehyun out of his thoughts which made him turn his head towards the voice, still burning with anger despite not knowing the reason why.

"A-are you okay..?" they asked.

Who is this?

Yes, he is okay.

But who the hell is this?

Taehyun begins to hyperventilate, he was too surprised and caught off guard of the events that had happened that he didn't know what to do or what to think. His clothes bailed on him, his body is shaking in anger, everything around him is cold, his body is feeling the wind from the air conditioner for the first time, his vision was blurry and he was getting even more dizzy each second that had passed because he was overwhelmed.

"Hey... you're Taehyun right?" the same voice called him, the voice was a bit more confident and less shaky than before but it seemed shaky.

Taehyun felt a hand on his shoulder which made him look up.

This guy was really tall.

This guy was wearing a long brown trenchcoat and a cream colored turtleneck and long baggy pants.

This guy is a blonde.

Is that Beomgyu?

No, this isn't Beomgyu, his voice doesn't sound like Beomgyu's too. He is too tall to be Beomgyu and too stylish anyways.

When his eyes adjusted slightly and he finally focuses on who the guy in front of him was, his heart calmed down a bit when he realized this was Beomgyu's tall friend.

Yeonjun.

This is Yeonjun.

He's handsome.

His eyes scanned the boy's hair and face until his eyes settled on his neck.

Something was flickering on the right side of his neck with half of it covered up by the turtleneck. He was about to pay no mind to it and opened his mouth to reply but closed it again when his vision fully adjusted and he can see clearly what the half of the mark was.

And that was when his body was burning in anger again.

His brain might be hurting, his memories might be a little blurry, and he might be needing a 24 hour rest, but he could never forget about that mark.

Every single person that was a wizard or has a wizardly blood in them has the very same mark on their necks, a small two headed dragon that can't be seen unless they are very close to that person and has the eyes of a hawk.

Only wizards and the ones that they cursed can see the mark; wizards so that they know who are wizards that are turning their marks invisible so that the public won't know they are one and the cursed, so that they'll know not to mess with those that have the marks, which explains why Taehyun can see them.

But of course, every wizard's bloodline is unique and so is their mark. The two headed dragon is those wizards who are common.

But Yeonjun's was different.

This special mark on his neck, a two headed fox with a dragon wings, is an usual thing to be tattooed in someone's neck and Taehyun is updated enough in what the happenings were in the world despite being the mirror for years to know that tattoos do not flicker like worn down lightbulbs.

This means Yeonjun has blood of a wizard coursing through his veins.

And the mark on his neck is the very same mark the wizard who cursed him has.

He has the blood of the wizard who trapped him inside the mirror for 300 years.

He has the blood of that unfair, disgusting, foul, vile, evil, hypocritical, fucking ass-face that trapped him inside the mirror.

Taehyun can only see red.

* * *

"Uhh, do you speak Korean..?" Yeonjun asked, walking backwards a few steps when the guy's eyes suddenly turned dark and is staring at his neck.

Yeonjun was very confused until he realized something and silently cursed.

"Shit," he huffs under his breath as he immediately slams one of his hands on his neck.

"Ahaha, I felt a mosquito on my neck. That was annoying," he laughs nervously, getting even more scared when they guy's dark gaze stayed on the same place.

"I'm just going to go, haha," he flashes him a totally-not-forced smile before he gulps and turns his back on the frozen man as he speedwalks towards the door. Maybe he can now see his mark because the curse had now worn off and he was terrified of wizards now, that's why he was staring at him and was frozen still. Yeah, maybe that's why.

Or maybe he forgot about the wizard mark but found his mark familiar and couldn't point his finger on what it was.

Or maybeㅡ

Yeonjun's trail of thought vanishes the moment he felt a hand on his back and before he knew it, his face was planted on the floor, one hand beside his face and another hand holding his nape down with something heavy on his back.

"Was it fun for your pathetic bloodline to make fun of us normal humans?!" he hears an angry voice on top of him and his blood turned cold.

"To do anything that you want without any consequences, are you sick fucks happy because of that?!" Taehyun yells, his sharp nails digging through Yeonjun's neck.

"Wh-what did we do?!" he splutters, growing even more confused and afraid in every single second that had passed, "M-me and my bloodline did nothing! What are you talking about?!"

Yeonjun regretted talking since he was flipped on to his back with such speed and force that knocked the air out of him as hands immediately made their way to his neck.

Now, he can see the eyes of the person on top of him. Taehyun's eyes were brimming with hate, malice, anger, and every synonym you could find of those words. Yeonjun would have found him incredibly adorable since the boy was wrapped in a bedsheet making him look like a soft marshmallow if it weren't the boy's shaking hands on his neck and the cold glare he was getting, of course.

"You wizard fucks won't trick me anymore," Taehyun hisses, his grip around his neck tightening which, "I have thought of killing you and your hypocritical ancestors over and over again, wanting to make you all feel the same pain as I did!"

Yeonjun spluttered before he managed to will himself to punch the boy on top of him, which was stopped by one of his hands but was enough for Yeonjun to distract him for a bit for him to flip them over.

"I don't know what my bloodline did to you nor what you did to be trapped inside that mirror, but you have got to let it go, man!" he yells through his gritted teeth as he tries to pry off the other's grip on his neck with his free hand while he tries to stop his other hand from from reaching his neck.

"Let it go?! As if it was easy for me to do that after being wronged!" he yells as he somehow slips one of his legs out of his bedsheet cover and knee the taller in the nuts.

The taller yelped as his hands instinctively moved to cover his throbbing crotch are which allowed Taehyun to punch him at the side of his face, throwing him to the other side of the room.

Despite having a throbbing cheek and throbbing nuts, he manages to stand up with his hands still clutching his abused middle area as he looks at Taehyun in horror.

The brunette had grabbed a long shard of glass from the broken mirror which can pass for a low quality, but equally deadly, knife and brandished it as he stops up.

"Finally," Taehyun whispers, staggering left and right, "I can finally start my revenge. You will be the opening sacrifice," he cackles out loud.

Yeonjun wanted to desperately talk him out of it, to tell him that they can stop fighting and settle everything while having a nice cup of lemonade but he knows that the boy is too far gone judging from his darkened eyes.

He puts himself in a fighting position with his arms outstretched, lips quivering in terror, "I know taekwondo! I can beat you!"

Taehyun cocks his head with a mocking grin, "Do you even think that you can beat me?"

Yeonjun internally curses before remembering his own bloodline.

"I– I know how to use magic!" he threatens, "I can use it to trap you back into something else like that glass shard you are holding!"

"As if I will give you a chance to!" Taehyun yells as he charges towards Yeonjun.

Yeonjun gulps, he was just bluffing, he couldn't even master the simplest wizard spell of conjuring a light ball. Yeonjun knows that he is weak at magic but he tried his best to learn and with all his efforts, managed to learn an intermediate spell, a clear-invisibility spell.

This spell allows him to turn invisible and walk through certain things that he wants to hence the word "clear". He hasn't polished the spell though, making him vulnerable to magic-based attacks but he is certain there are no magic related items here.

Yeonjun immediately chants the spell and says the incantation as fast as he could, finishing it which made the spell take quick effect just as Taehyun drove the sharp piece of glass through where his stomach would have been which made the taller flinch.

The clothes that Yeonjun wore were immediately pinned to the wall behind him as they fell when the blonde casted his spell. He usually wore clothes that would stick to him when he casts the only spell he knows but he didn't think that he would ever need to use it, plus the clothes aren't even that stylish.

Well, he could take being buttnaked to flee an encounter than being stabbed to death. He can just run through the doors and run a few stairs down to his room while focusing so that his spell won't wear off.

Taehyun hissed when the moment the glass shard pinned the clothes. At this rate, Yeonjun was going to escape.

He looked around for something he could use and his eyes immediately fell to the seal on the ground which had kept him from escaping the blasted mirror.

An idea popped into his mind but he didn't know if this would work, if the seal's magic would still work even if it was taken off.

He grabbed the broken mirror besides him, ran towards where the seal was lying down on the floor and grabbed it, slammed it on the back of the mirror and swung in front of him with all his might.

A loud crack could be heard and a yell, then immediately a loud thud on the floor rang.

Yeonjun's body immediately became visible to his eyes, the older curled up on the floor and was grunting heavily. Whether he was curled up because of the pain or to protect his dignity, Taehyun does not know.

The raven threw the now-split in half mirror and slowly walked towards the spot where his glass shard was embedded and took it off, the clothes falling down the floor.

He towered over Yeonjun, who was in pain and stared at the mark on his neck soullessly.

"Wizards are weak, only using their magic to defend themselves," Taehyun spits, "They are just humans at the end of the day."

"Hey, man..." Yeonjun pants, tears pricking the corner of his eyes as he glances towards the weapon on his hand. He wanted to run, to make a break for it but he knows it is useless since he is in so much pain after getting smacked by the mirror frame, "Listen, I don't– I don't know what happened– why you are inside that mirror... but whoever was that person in my bloodline– I am nothing like them..."

"Are you really that shameless?!" Yeonjun flinched once the younger raised his voice that was filled with genuine anger, "Do you know what you are even saying?! To say you are nothing like them, their blood runs in your veins!"

"But I am not the same as them!" he yells back as he turns his head to level him with a glare, only to falter when he meets the other's eyes full of hate that he had been bottling up all those years, "Th-they might have been unfair to you... but I– I am not the same... I promise."

Taehyun's eyes pierce through Yeonjun's, getting intimidated by the younger's glare that he could only look away.

"Considering your friendship with Beomgyu, you do know what I want to do after I get out of the mirror, right? He told you, right?" he asks, "About the wizards and the Kangs."

Yeonjun nodded slightly.

"I don't forgive easily. The Kang Taehyun that was stuck inside the mirror for five years might be forgiving, but this Kang Taehyun wants revenge."

He continues, "I have already been labeled as a bad person, a man that practices dark magic, a man that," he takes in a shaky breath, "A man that killed a young girl."

Yeonjun blinks at the moment of weakness the raven showed, even if it was for just about a nanosecond.

That brief moment was what he needed to know that he– no, Taehyun can still be saved.

"I just want revenge, don't you get it?" he grits his teeth as tears started forming on his eyes, "For all the pain that they caused me, for being so unfair when all I did was bring joy to everyone around."

Taehyun's grip on the glass shard tightened and the blonde could see blood trickling from his fist.

"Even if takes years, I want to get rid of those unfair people that I know... so that nothing will be repeated– so that they wouldn't experience what I had been through."

Yeonjun frowned. The younger had no ill intent at all– well, there was some– but it was for a good reason. He had heard from Beomgyu that this guy is very intelligent, very smart but here, he could see that the younger is being naive. He couldn't rid the world of unfair people and even if he had managed to kill all the wizards and all the Kangs, there would still be a lot of unfair people... just with different names.

Your names and what you are don't determine if you are good or bad, Yeonjun would have thought Taehyun would had realized that.

But he knows that the raven had thought about that but just chose to disregard it just by the looks of it.

Now that he knows his true feelings, this doesn't faze him at all. Taehyun is a good person and is just looking out for others, he has a pure and soft heart and is very smart but he knows everyone can have their moments where they are naive.

"S-so," Taehyun's voice quivered which Yeonjun didn't fail to notice.

"I'll start with y–"

"Do you know Kang Yeosang?"

Yeonjun's sudden question surprised and confused Taehyun all of a sudden which had led him to a halt.

"An idol group member, I know," he answers as he tries to blink his tears away, "If this is your way of stalling for time–"

"What about Kang Minhee? A member of Cravity?"

"What are you–"

"Or Kang Daniel? Or Kang Daesung? Or even Kang Dongho?"

"What's your point?!" he yells, hands shaking.

"Taehyun-ah," he flinched at the sound of his name that had came out of the older's mouth. It didn't sound mocking or angry but it sounded warm and comforting which confused Taehyun even more and brought even more indecipherable feelings inside him.

"Those people are Kangs too, you know. They are working hard to to make music and make people smile and happy," Yeonjun continues, "Like you once did."

"They aren't bad people and if they were, their fans would have already found dirt about them and already dipped," he continues, not sure if Taehyun knows what the word "dipped" means but judging from the lack of expression he got, he still doesn't know, "But they are good people, really. And you want to hurt them?"

Taehyun says nothing and Yeonjun thought about doing something risky. Taehyun doesn't to be fought or yelled at, he needs comfort, the thing he had been lacking all over the years, and so he reaches out his hand gently holds the hand that was holding the glass shard.

If one were to come inside the room, they would see a naked guy on the floor, reaching out to hold a covered (but naked underneath) guy's hand. It would be a weird scenario to see but Yeonjun knows for sure no one would come in.

Taehyun wanted to pull his hand away but for some odd reason, he kept it in place. He doesn't know why but he felt like he needed this.

"You don't know them personally," he counters.

"And neither do you," he smirks teasingly, "But everyone else can see the good in them, y'know? Just because they are also Kangs doesn't mean that they are bad."

"Plus, there are also bad people who you don't know the name of. Kang or not, there is always evil in our world, you know?"

"Why haven't you trapped me yet?"

Yeonjun blinks at the question, surprised at the sudden change of topic.

Taehyun notices the confusion on Yeonjun's face and so, he repeats it, "Why haven't you trapped me in a mirror yet like you said you would?"

The recipient only shakes his head with a smile, "Why would I do that? Taehyun, you're a good person."

"That's not up to you to decide–"

"Yeah, it's not up to me to decide that," he retracts the hand that was holding Taehyun's hand to cover himself down below, realizing he was completely nude, "But that's what I see in you. You're a good kid, even if you wanted revenge, I know that you were wronged and that's why you wanted revenge."

"I-I'm not..." he starts but his lips ended up quivering in the end as his eyes began to get watery again.

"If you would kill me and the others you wanted to kill, you'd be at the same level as those people who wronged you– worst even."

"You have a good heart, Taehyun-ah. I don't want you to do things that you would regret," he pauses, studying the look on the younger's face before continuing, "Beomgyu wouldn't like that."

For a second, Taehyun had forgotten who Beomgyu was until he realized what he had done and immediately panicked.

Not only did he trash his hyung's mirror by breaking out of it, he took off the bedsheets (which he knows will make the older upset) and had attacked his best friend with the intent to kill.

He looks at his bleeding hand and realized the awful things he could've possibly done. This, however, causes another form of anger to wash over him.

He isn't mad at Yeonjun or his bloodline or the Kangs, he is very angry at himself.

In a fit of rage, he yelled and raised the hand that was holding the long piece of glass which made Yeonjun flinch and close his eyes, only to hear a loud shatter and something thick yet soft weighing down on him and blocking his vision along with the sound of the door opening and closing.

He pulls the unknown object that was covering his face away which made him realize that this was the bedsheet that was wrapped around Taehyun. Could he had ran away naked?

He was about to rush out to call him, to grab him and pull him back inside and shove some of Beomgyu's clothes to him when he realized he, too, was naked himself minus the bedsheet draped around himself.

Yeonjun turned to where his clothes were pinned to find them missing. The long glass shard that had pinned his clothes were gone too.

Did they magically disappear? He is a wizard (a bad one) after all, and...

He hears the front door open and close.

His eyes widened in realization.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" he screamed as loud as he can as he grips the bedsheets in anger.

* * *

Taehyun runs and runs and runs, he doesn't know how long he has been running nor even how far he is from Beomgyu's dormitory.

He took a bunch of lefts and rights, panting and looking all panicked as he sees a brand new world in front of him. There were billboards all over the place, a big television on top of a building which flashed pictures of handsome men and women alike, there were fancy vehicles all around and people were walking around and talking with their friends that were dressed in fine, fashionable clothes.

Taehyun felt out of place. The world drastically changed the whole time he has been inside that cursed mirror. He had missed every single evolution of technology and of the world and this made him even more upset.

But his fear outshined the upset feeling he has. In a world where he doesn't where he is, what to do, and everything that is happening all around him, he feels like an ant roaming around another ant colony.

He starts hyperventilating as he runs towards a dark alley and hides himself there, leaning his back against the wall, sliding down to the ground.

He shouldn't had run away.

He should have stayed there.

But what would he had done to Yeonjun if he had stayed?

Taehyun looks up to see the dimming sky.

It was getting late, he knows that Beomgyu is coming home soon.

Beomgyu.

Yeah, Beomgyu.

But what can he do about that? Will the older even search for him?

Taehyun guesses that Yeonjun has probably told the older about what had happened. There is no more hope for such thought that Beomgyu is going to find him.

"Ey, that's some fancy clothin' ya' got there," Taehyun hears a gruff voice speaking that sounded like it was coming from the deeper part of the alley.

He looks to his right and sees around four tall and buff men walking towards him with a big grin on their faces. They didn't seem homeless but they didn't look nice either.

"Mind if we take it?" another one says, grinning as he showed his rotten teeth.

Taehyun stands up, slowly backing away, "No, these aren't yours to take," he says with such hypocrisy, these clothes weren't his either.

"C'mon, pal. Your clothes are worth big bucks," they cackled as they walked closer, "Give it."

Taehyun sprinted away from the scene as soon as he heard the last sentence. He had stolen Yeonjun's pricey clothing and had money-addicted hyenas running after him, is this karma?

He doesn't dare look back since he hears their footsteps and their yelling behind him all too clearly. He knows he is strong, if it was just one man, he would have charged at him already but these are four buff and tall dudes which made him no match for them.

Taehyun's eyes dart frantically at every single person that was watching them, silently pleading for help, for them to do something and call those people who they call policemen, but all they did was turn a blind eye on him and continued doing their thing.

His heart ached in pain.

'Everyone... why aren't they doing anything?' he thought to himself as tears pricked the corners of his eyes.

"Kang or not, there is always evil in our world."

Yeonjun's words rang through his head.

Now he fully understood.

Even if he wanted to deny it, Yeonjun's words were facts.

They don't know Taehyun and Taehyun doesn't know them but they are willing to do something bad just for their own personal gain.

The world is unfair and even if he tries to get rid of it, he knows he has no match for it. He isn't even that strong to beat the people behind him.

If the world is unfair, then what should he do if he couldn't get rid of it?

He knows what to do.

He will also be unfair.

Taehyun makes a move and swerves into a crowd of people that were starting to walk across the street. He looks back and sees a couple of people getting pushed back and getting elbowed by the men.

"I'm sorry but it's a part of life," he whispers to himself.

The men behind him were a bit farther away than they were before he dove into the sea of people but this was not enough for him to lose them.

Taehyun sees a man that was cutting the edges of his hedges on his lawn and he gulped before preparing himself.

"I'm sorry, sir!" he yells before jumping over the hedges without even grazing the leaves which surprised the man.

He continues running even if he hears a bunch of grunting and yelling behind him, along with a loud, "I just trimmed them!" from the same man.

Taehyun kept on running but was immediately pulled back by his trench coat all too suddenly and was pinned against the wall by one of the man.

"You may have fooled my friends, but I am smarter than them all," he hissed with his nasty breath which made Taehyun scrunch up his nose im distate.

"Now give me all your clothes and all your valuables and nobody gets hurt," he threatens as he tightened his grip on Taehyun's turtleneck.

Taehyun's eyes darted to his sides, trying to find a way to escape. He notes that the other men are still arguing with the hedge owner with some on them on the floor, tangled with the poor hedge but he knows that it is a matter of time before they start running again.

He notes that the guy's center was an opening, he can knee him and run away but he takes in the possibility of getting pulled back.

On the corner of his eye, he sees a two tall men laughing while talking about something that he doesn't know as they were starting to walk pass them, the curly haired one being the one who is laughing loudly. He looks at their hands and sees the quieter one holding what it seemed like a hot cup of coffee judging by how he held it, the loud one was drinking what it seemed to be like boba tea.

He takes this chance and knees the guy in the nuts, who knelt on the floor due to the pain, and tries to run away but was grabbed by his trench coat and pulled back but he had already anticipated it and drove two of his fingers through the guy's eyes.

The man yelled in pain, which had startled the two tall men who are now aware of what they were doing, but had made no move to let go of Taehyun.

Taehyun lifts his head up and meets the eyes of the quiet one which looked concerned and terrified.

Before the quiet one could even speak, he snatched the cup of coffee on his hands, mentally celebrating for being right while silently cursing because it was too hot before splashing it on to the guy's face, who immediately let go.

Taehyun dashed out of the place and continued running straight for who knows how long and finally making a turn to a nearby alley and hiding there, falling to the ground as he tried to catch his breathe.

He did it.

He got away.

But he got away at the cost of injuring other people, destroying a man's hedge and wasting a guy's money by stealing his coffee.

All because of him thinking that being unfair is just a part of this world.

He had let go of his morals just to escape.

Taehyun laughs at the irony. He wanted to get out of the mirror to rid the world of evil and unfairness, to get revenge but here he is, a living and breathing hypocrite.

He's one of those people.

He's pathetic.

He's–

Taehyun heard rustling beside him and immediately stood up, wanting to run again in fear that the person beside him is one of the men that had found him or someone else that was about to do the same thing as them.

"Hyunie," he hears his name being called which made him look back to see... a person with black hair?

The person looked up and Taehyun froze. The same warm eyes, the pout on his lips, that stupid shirt he always wears when he goes to work.

"H-hyung why– how did– you're here– I–" he couldn't form a single sentence, he was too surprised to see his hyung sitting beside him.

"Liked my hair? I got it dyed earlier," he grinned before scratching the back of his head with his free hand, his other hand that was hiding behind his back is seemingly holding something, "I knew you were kind of athletic or so because of your muscles but I didn't peg you to be a fast runner, I almost died from running out of breath you know?"

"Why are you here?" Taehyun started sobbing, "Yeonjun told you, didn't he?"

"He didn't tell me a lot," he sighs before pulling Taehyun down to sit, "I need answers, Hyun."

"I'm sorry."

"Why did you tear my hyung's clothes off of him?"

"I didn't!" he snaps back, "If anything, your hyung was the one who took off his clothes!"

Beomgyu blinked before sighing and rubbing his eyes with his free hand, "You know what, let's talk about that later when you and Yeonjun are in the same room."

Taehyun stayed silent.

He was looking down at his lap, letting his tears fall down. He couldn't bring himself to look at Beomgyu, not when he knew what he did.

He suddenly felt a pair of arms snake around his shoulders and yank him towards something soft and fluffy. It took him a while to realize that he was being hugged and comforted by Beomgyu which led him to wrap his arms around his hyung's waist and continued letting his tears run free.

After a few minutes, Taehyun pulled away and Beomgyu helped him stand up. The newly raven haired boy crouched down a bit to get something off the ground and gave it to Taehyun.

The other raven looked at the paper bag on his hand with a confused expression on his face, only to be greeted with a comforting smile from Beomgyu once he looked up.

"You might be hungry after you got out of the mirror," Beomgyu answers Taehyun's nonverbal question, "So I brought you some food and a drink."

"I-I can't accept this– I–" Taehyun stutters but was cut off by a loud growl from his stomach which made him embarrassed.

Beomgyu giggled before pushing it to the younger's chest, who took it, "You need it."

And then, he turned and walked away.

He immediately loses his appetite, the hunger he had flew along with Beomgyu.

Taehyun sighs, he is going to be abandoned again. Beomgyu came to give him food as a final goodbye. Well, what did he expect? He told the older about his plans when he escapes the mirror and plus, he knows that he doesn't want to do anything with him now knowing what he did to Yeonjun.

It's always like that for him. Getting abandoned.

So, what can he do now? He lost all the purpose to pursue his supposed to be goals and revenge, he had changed... how is he supposed to fit in with people that are far too different from his time?

Will he just wander forever?

"Oi, Kang Taehyun."

Taehyun flinched as he heard his name and looks at the direction where it came from to see Beomgyu looking at him.

"Aren't you coming home?" he asks, tilting his head, "I asked Soobinie-hyung and Hyuka to come and so they prepared more food for you. I bet Yeonjun-hyung made his delicious aglio e olio."

"W-why?" he managed to choked out as he tried to stop himself from crying again, gripping the paper bag more tightly which had ripped a little.

Beomgyu shrugs and flashes him a smile, "You still live there but just not in a mirror."

"No, not that... why... why are you doing this..." he sniffled.

Beomgyu walks towards him and slings an arm across his shoulders as he urges him to walk along with him.

"I don't need a reason why," he responds coolly.

And for some reason, Taehyun seemed to be satisfied with that answer and just nods.

"Though we need to talk about what happened, I'm kind of confused about the clothes part."

"Okay, hyung."

"You better start eating your burger now or you'll have a bad stomachache. I don't want to carry you home."

"Okay, hyung."

"Stop being so different from your usual safe oh my god, Taehyun! Where's that usual brattish personality of yours?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Is the burger delicious? I made it myself."

"Yeah, it is, hyung."

"Y'know, this is the first time I didn't want you to call me hyung."

And so, they made their way to Beomgyu's dormitory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> christmas break has come and that means i can continue writing without any modules blocking my way~ ^^
> 
> \+ our boys won an award at TMA for "best performer" and i'm proud! so much blessings for our boys!


	8. Feelings for You (끝)

"Yeonjun-hyung!" Beomgyu calls out as he opens the door to his dorm room with Taehyun hiding behind him, unsure if he should come in or not, "We're back!"

He hears loud steps nearing the door and was surprised to see Soobin, his friend and the object of his hyung's affections, "Welcome back!"

"Hyung? What are you doing here?" he asks as he takes off his shoes and carries them inside, nudging Taehyun to do the same.

The taller hummed as he held the door for them, "Yeonjun-hyung told me to get some clothes for him right after me and Hyuka arrived her to tell him to prepare food like you said," he answers before letting out a laugh as he closing the door, "He said his clothes were stolen, how does one get his clothes stolen in the first place?"

Beomgyu was about to answer that before stopping once he realized what the other had said.

"Yeonjun-hyung always locks the door to his dorm and always brings both his original and spare keys with him," he squints his eyes at a slightly blushing Soobin, "What's going on with you two?"

Soobin lets out a nervous laugh, face turning even more red, "Ummm... that's not important, just answer my question please."

"Right, I'll be sure to grill you on later," he says before clearing up his throat," Anyways, as for your question, he can answer that," Beomgyu grins as he stepped to the side to reveal Taehyun, who had hidden behind the newly raven haired boy the moment he stepped inside.

Soobin's eyes widened in recognition as he looked at the boy who also had his eyes opened wide.

"Ah, you were the one who took my coffee!" he squeaked out as he pointed at Taehyun whose face turned red, "You better pay me back."

"I'm sorry," he replied sheepishly

Soobin turned to look at Beomgyu, "I didn't expect the person that you were chasing to be this guy who chucked my coffee," he sighs.

Beomgyu laughs, "Hey, it was self-defense from what I saw it! If I ran a little bit faster, I could have caught up to him and stopped him from taking your coffee."

"Whatever, tiny legs."

"At least I run faster than you!"

Taehyun looks at the two bickering people in confusion, feeling out of place. What did Beomgyu mean by "if he ran a bit faster?" Did he see him run away from those men? How did he find him in such a large area?"

He looks at the oversized boots on his hands, internally praising himself for managing to run without tripping or having his foot come off of one of the shows due to how big it was.

The shoes looked very dirty with all the dirt that had gotten to it when he was running, plus it had a few scratch marks on it when he accidentally scraped it on the floor of the alley when he struggled to stand up the first time he encountered with the thieves.

He felt guilty, the shoes looked fancy too. How was he supposed to pay Yeonjun back when he has no money on him? Plus, he damaged and dirtied all his clothes.

What's he going to do now?

"Hi."

His head snapped to where the voice was coming from, his eyes meeting all yellow. He looked up slightly to find the very same curly haired boy from earlier smiling at him, the yellow had been his hoodie.

"You are the guy from earlier, right?" he asked and Taehyun froze, unsure if he should respond or not. It has been quite a long time ever since he had talked to people in person. It wasn't the same when he was in the mirror at all.

Having no replies from the shorter, the guy still continued, "I'm Huening Kai but my friends call me Hyuka," he smiled a little too brightly for Taehyun's liking.

"What's your name?"

He blinks.

'Right. It's just your name, you need to converse, okay?' he mentally prepares himself before extending his shaky left hand out to which the taller immediately grabs and shakes it making him flinch slightly.

He breathes through his nose and with an exhale, he finally opens his mouth to speak.

"Taehyun," he starts before opening his mouth again, this time his lips were shaking, "Kang Taehyun."

"Yes, you talked! I mean, nice to meet you, Taehyun!" Hyuka squeaked as he snatched the shoes from Taehyun and threw them at the side, which alerted Beomgyu and scolded Hyuka for chucking the dirty shoes inside his home. The younger ignored him as he dragged Taehyun further inside the house.

Taehyun lets out a confused noise when the taller guides him to sit on the couch before walking backwards and looking at him from head to toe with wide eyes, the other's bold action making him feel shy and exposed.

"Those are... Yeonjun-hyung's clothes aren't they," he pointed out and to which he just nodded at.

Huening Kai let out a loud panicked shriek which made Taehyun cover his ears with both of his hands, taking note that sounds are much louder than when he is in the mirror or that this person just has a talent in screaming.

"Are you his fling?! I didn't know that hyung had a fling!" he shrieks which startled the two other people who had already been alarmed from the scream.

"Who is a fling?" Soobin asked before settling his eyes on Taehyun and properly looking at him and his clothes.

"O-oh..." he purses his lips, nodding at Taehyun who is now panicking because of numerous reasons.

Beomgyu saws the disappointment and hurt on Soobin's face which made him panic. He immediately runs in front of Taehyun and faces Soobin as if he were hiding the panicking boy behind his back, "Look, Yeonjun-hyung has no fling, alright?"

He stares at Beomgyu in confusion as he raises a hand and points it at Taehyun before letting it fall to the side if he was saying "but look at him."

"Hyung, this is just a major misunderstanding," he says before sighing and falling on the spot besides Taehyun, "Besides, I also misunderstood."

The other boy was about to open his mouth to reply when a delicious smell suddenly filled the air around the room. Their eyes turned when they heard humming and saw Yeonjun in a fresh set of new clothes balancing a big platter of aglio e olio on one hand and a bunch of plates with forks at the top on the other hand.

Beomgyu lowkey wished that it would fall but quickly berated himself that even if it is for the laughs, it's his stuff that would get broken and his dorm that would get dirty.

"I heard Hyuningie screaming, is everything alright?" he asks as he puts down both plates on the table in front of the couch. Just as he grabbed one of the forks, he turned around to give it to what he thought was Huening Kai but immediately flung himself over to Beomgyu when he saw the person sitting on the couch.

"You!" he says with gritted teeth as he points the fork menacingly at him, "You stole my clothes!" his eyes wandered to his trenchcoat that was big on the younger and the loose pants and turtleneck shirt on him before screaming, "My clothes! They are all dirty!"

Taehyun immediately yelps and turns red when he feels the older's hands on him, tugging the trenchcoat off him.

"Give! My! Clothes! Back!" Yeonjun punctuates every word with each and every pull he has.

Taehyun curls up on himself, hugging the clothes around him, "No! I don't have anything to wear!"

"That's not my problem, now undress!"

"This is sexual harassment! Get your hands off me!"

"You were the one who took my clothes!"

"Excuse me?! You were the one who took your clothes OFF!"

Both Beomgyu and Huening Kai were confused at the sudden ordeal and also were genuinely worried at their poor friend having a mental breakdown beside them that was chanting "he took his clothes off" again and again at his side.

"Okay, stop! Pull him away, Kai!" he says as he grabs on to Yeonjun and pulls him away from Taehyun, who is also pulled away by Huening Kai. The two glared at each other and the raven haired boy could sense the tension from the two.

Yeonjun was about to lunge at Taehyun again when the one holding him smacked his hand at the back of his head, which made the other turn and glare at him.

He glared back, "Before you continue harassing Taehyun over there, hyung, could you please tell us what happened? Soobin-hyung needs it," he adds as he jerks his thumb at their tallest who is still having a mental breakdown.

Yeonjun sighs and the other loosens his grip on him.

"Fine," he says before standing up, "But first, we need to eat. My aglio e olio is going to be cold."

* * *

"So, you're telling us," Hyuka starts before he swallows the pasta and continuing, "That you are a wizard?"

"Yes."

"And that you tried to use your wizardly power and turn invisible to escape Taehyun who wanted to tear your face."

"Yes."

"But you are–"

"–a cockalorum whose brain is far smaller than Dobby's dick."

"Yes– wait, no!" Yeonjun yells at Taehyun who only snickered while Huening Kai at the background is asking Soobin what a cockalorum is.

Soobin and Huening Kai were still quite confused at the whole situation, still thinking that everything is a prank but with Taehyun's sudden appearance and the obvious, non-playful glares he and Yeonjun are sending each other, there might be a possibility that the whole cursed mirror thing is real.

"Seriously, what have I ever done to you?"

"Sorry, I just get pissed when I see that thing on your neck," Taehyun points out before shrugging half-heartedly that the blonde had to stop himself from snapping the other's neck.

Beomgyu blinked at Yeonjun's neck before turning to look at Taehyun who was currently eating the pasta, "What thing?"

"Hm?"

"On hyung's neck? There's nothing there."

"Oh," Taehyun answers as he twirls his fork around the pasta, "You guys can't see it since he is currently hiding it and because you weren't cursed like me. Show it to them."

"I have a name, you know!"

"Ah yes, the fool."

"Trust me, hyung. This guy takes a while to warm up and it's a pain," he comforts the steaming blonde as he sighs in relief that the younger's rash and savage attitude has come back. Truth be told, he prefers the snarky Taehyun than the silent and obedient one.

Yeonjun sighs, "I can see that, plus he hates my guts because of my wizard lineage even though I am a weakling," he says before shoving a fork full of pasta inside his mouth.

"It's not that I hate you and your lineage anymore though," Taehyun mumbles silently, enough for them all to hear if they were paying attention.

"What changed your mind, Taehyun?" Soobin asks, no longer in a mental breakdown, "Yeonjunie said that you were spouting things about hating wizards and their line and Kangs and stuff."

The raven hummed as he looked at Yeonjun, whose cheeks were tinted in a soft pink color right after Soobin had let out the nickname, looking at Soobin with fondness. The older's head suddenly snapped to his direction and raised an eyebrow in confusion, expecting an insult.

"He said... things," he answers as the older stared at him wide-eyed, surprised that he managed to change the young savage's mind, "Plus, when I left the dorm, I experienced a different world out there... so that's that."

"I see."

"You know, kid," the blonde smirked, not in a mocking way but in a teasing way, "You might not be so bad after all."

"Shut up, ninnyhammer."

"Ninnyhammer– you sound like an old man!"

Beomgyu's eyes looked at Taehyun who is currently having a friendly banter with Yeonjun with a soft gaze. He couldn't believe that the younger was really here, beside him, and not inside a mirror that divided their worlds.

Is this real? Are they really sitting in his living room and eating his hyung's aglio e olio as his friends look at Taehyun like he was there. They looked at him with smiles and not with a confused expression like what they mostly did when he was still in the mirror.

Without thinking twice, he reached out and poked the younger's cheeks which had surprised the younger and had him immediately turning to face him.

"Do you have a proper explanation as to why you are poking my cheek?" he asks, looking at him questioningly.

Beomgyu was flustered, he had suddenly reached over and poked his cheek. Oh well, he should be honest, right?

"It doesn't feel that you are real here beside me and not inside some stupid mirror," he answers, gulping down his nervousness. He can feel his friends teasing eyes on him, "I never thought the day would come that we'd be sitting next to each other and eating Yeonjun-hyung's delicious pasta."

The younger went silent and he internally panicked. Did he say anything wrong? Should he retract his words and say it was just a joke? What should he d–

"I feel the same way," Taehyun spoke which had halted Beomgyu's train of thoughts, "Though the world is new to me now and I am very out of touch with what is happening in this era, everything feels unreal."

"I would want to live a normal life and forget the grudges I have," he smiles at Beomgyu which made him almost drop his plate, "I am still very... off in feeling and expressing different emotions since I've lost touch in this sort of human mechanism but I will try."

"Dude, you speak like a robot," Hyuka chimes, looking at him with a wow'ed expression, "Your words are so fancy."

"Well, what can you expect from an old man?" Yeonjun teases, Huening Kai laughs along with Beomgyu as Soobin studies Taehyun, still unsure if this is really real.

Taehyun scoffs, "I'm still the same person as I was before I was trapped inside that damn mirror, I'm still young."

"Young enough to be someone's grandpa."

"How does that make any sense?!"

"Okay, calm down everyone, let's eat in peace– NO, TAEHYUN! DROP THE FORK!"

* * *

After eating and washing the dishes, the group huddled once more in the living room as they talked about what life was during Taehyun's time and educate him about what's new in today's era in which Yeonjun had fun teasing him with because he is "too old to even get it," which made them take several breaks to prevent the younger from putting the older into a headlock.

Yeonjun showed the his neck tattoo and made it visible and invisible so that the two tallest member of their friend group can believe them now. Though Hyuka was already believing everything they are saying, Soobin is still a bit wary and confused but decides to give it a chance.

Beomgyu had grilled Soobin and Yeonjun for information regarding Yeonjun's dorm key to which they both revealed that they had started dating in the morning after what had happened last night, when Yeonjun drunkenly went to Soobin and Huening Kai's shared dorm after the party, thinking that it was his dorm, and began mumbling how soft and loveable Soobin was when said person opened the door to his dorm. He had drunkenly confessed to Soobin (which made Beomgyu sneeze for some reason unknown) before passing out.

Yeonjun ended up waking up early in the day in Soobin's bed and freaked out when he found the love of his life sleeping next to him and tried to sneak out but was dragged back in by Soobin who was had awoken from the movements and told him everything that happened last night before they gushed out all their feelings and agreed to date, all the while Huening Kai was cluelessly sleeping even until Yeonjun sneaked out of their dorms.

Soobin and Yeonjun practically tried to stop both Huening Kai and Beomgyu from strangling them as they both screamed betrayal as Taehyun watched them with embarrassment in his eyes, wondering why he liked Beomgyu.

Yeonjun and Taehyun both cleared up what had happened and the two reconciled, putting what happened at the past behind them though the blonde told the raven that he has to pay for wrecking his clothes– which was a joke but the younger insisted he would buy back someday, since he had almost drove a large piece of glass through him and destroyed his clothes.

Was it enough to pay Yeonjun back? No.

Was it enough for Yeonjun, though? Yes, the older seemed to develop a soft spot for the scary younger and even told him that it's fine if he wouldn't pay him back but the stubborn Taehyun insisted.

After Yeonjun showing proof to both Huening Kai and Soobin that he can turn invisible and having his clothes fall down again, the trio went home with a red-faced Soobin who looks like he believed everything now, bidding goodbye to Beomgyu and Taehyun, promising that they'll invite them out for hang outs soon.

The two of them walked back to Beomgyu's bedroom and suddenly, the air around them became thick and hot.

It was hella' awkward.

The two stood in different corners of the room, staring at each other silently, not knowing what to do. It had been different when Taehyun was still in the mirror, but now it was real life and they are too shy to do anything.

"Umm," Beomgyu started, "Yeonjun-hyung cleaned up the glass and mirror."

"I can see that," Taehyun replies, smiling as he took off the trench coat, leaving him on Yeonjun's baggy sweatshirt and loose pants.

The shorter raven looks around Beomgyu's room and smiles, earning a confused look from the other.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I'm smiling at the fact that your room looks even worst outside the mirr– I'm kidding!" he laughs as the other boy chucks a pillow at him with him catching it and throwing it at him with two times the force.

"It's just that, I didn't really expect myself being able to see the rest of your room as I stand in front of you," he continues, "In reality."

"Hyun, you are out of the mirror and you being cursed inside it– that's in the past, forget about it," he pouts, flopping down on the bed, "It makes me feel sad if you bring up your mirror days."

Taehyun squints his eyes at Beomgyu.

"If Yeonjun-hyung didn't tear off the seal that day–"

Beomgyu throws another pillow, only to have it getting blown back at his face before putting it down on the bed with a huff, "Fine, fine. I was too scared of letting you out because of your revenge plan or something."

"I couldn't blame you for that," he shrugs as he sits besides Beomgyu on the bed, "But I got to be thankful for hyung. If it wasn't for him, I might have still been in the mirror yelling curses at you."

"Yeah, and I might be at the bar right now getting myself wasted with Junie."

Taehyun blinks and then smirks at Beomgyu, who turns his head at the other nervously though not knowing why.

"Speaking of wasted, you said some mighty fine things last night," his smirk turns into a grin and Beomgyu could feel his heart stop, "We need to talk about that," he continued, not minding the scared walnut besides him.

His brain wracked around for memories of that night but he couldn't remember anything, to no avail.

"Wh-what did I say? You said that I said stupid things... right?"

The younger hums, putting a finger on his chin and looking up as if he was really thinking about it, "Well, you said things about not having a type and then ended up with me being your type," he teases.

As if the hamster on Beomgyu's brain-wheel started running full speed, all the memories that his brain suppressed that night flooded back to him.

He wished that the hamster in his brain hadn't ran and made him remember because he now wants to dig a hole and bury himself in there.

"Uhhh..." he spoke dumbly, noting how his face suddenly went warm and how the grin on Taehyun's lips grew wider. He knew that the other knew that he remembered and so he cannot lie about not being able to remember it.

And so, he did the only thing he could possibly do.

He tried to roll towards the end of the bed and tried to make a break for it to the door but the other had put his hands at both sides of Beomgyu's head, looming over him as he successfully trapped the panicking newly raven haired boy.

"I need answers, Gyu," he says with a teasing smile and tone, "Didn't you say that you wanted to touch this pretty face?"

"Oh my god– stop before I tell Yeonjun-hyung to shove you back in the mirror," he hissed as he covered his blushing face.

Taehyun laughed as he removed the older's hands and pinned it to the side which made the older tilt his head to the side to not look at him in the eyes, "We're cool, I know that he won't do that."

"Taehyun, do you know what you are doing right now?" Beomgyu panics as he tries to get out of the younger one's grip.

"I'm pinning you down," he answers in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yes, but do you KNOW what you are doing to me?!"

Taehyun gives him a weird look before leaning away from him, sitting down properly and retracting his hands which made the older able to sit up and give him a scandalized look.

"Did that hurt or offend you? I thought I was being playful..." he asked, innocent eyes staring into his accusatory ones, "I saw two friends do the same thing as he bent his friend on the bed as his other friends laughed at them– Jackson and Bam were their names? I don't know, it's been a long time."

"No, Hyun. You got that wr–"

His eyes widened as if he realized something, "Ah, I should have probably bent you like that, right?"

"What do you mean bent– HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY LEGS– WAAAH!" he screeched as he was yet pushed to his back as his legs were brought up on pushed down towards his face like he was doing yoga.

While it was a bit relaxing, he was panicking when he sees Taehyun looming over him with a playful smile that seemed to make him want to just spread his legs right then and there.

But of course, he has his own conscience and his conscience tells him to stop being a dumb fuck and push Taehyun off him.

He smirks at Taehyun before bringing all of his weight and power to his thighs and push the raven down. The said person was surprised at his counterattack and tried to push it back but the older's leg power was too much and he was immediately pushed down to the bed, his back pressing up against the softness of the mattress as Beomgyu sits up, effectively straddling Taehyun.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" the younger beneath him laughs as he tries to regain his breath from trying to push the older's stronger thighs away from him earlier.

The younger snakes his hand upwards as he tries to sneakily push the older away but failed when the older saw his hands and immediately pinned them down on the bed.

"Yeah, it was fun," Beomgyu grinned, panting, "But you shouldn't do things like that to me, Hyun."

"Why?"

Beomgyu didn't answer as he continues to stare at the beauty beneath him.

'So this is what you see when you are on top of them,' he thinks, 'God, he's so pretty.'

The grin on his face falls as his gaze zeroes in to every part of Taehyun's face, his eyes, his nose, his cheeks, his lips– _his goddamn lips_.

"Hyung?"

"Hm?" he answers, eyes not leaving his plump lips as he licks his own lips unconsciously, not knowing that the younger beneath him was starting to feel flustered and panicked.

"The tension is so thick here," he says in his panicked haze and Beomgyu leaps out of Taehyun's thighs, finally coming to his senses.

Taehyun was slightly disappointed at the loss of contact but the sudden tension that he felt was too overwhelming like he would do something that he would regret if he would stay in that position longer.

Was he supposed to feel that way or was he really that out of current world's loop that he doesn't know if that was acceptable or not.

But judging from the expression of the boy infront of him, the other was flustered too unless he read him wrong.

"You..." Beomgyu started, "You shouldn't say things like that in the heat of the moment, you know."

"What do you mean heat of the moment? Is that some new language you future humans made?"

"No, it's–" he started but stopped, "You don't know anything, don't you?"

Taehyun nods with a pout, "I'm very out of the loop of what's new in the current time, how can I possibly know what that is? I know what a laptop is but I don't know what those red yellow green blinking bulbs are in the streets."

Beomgyu blinks, this guy is really an old soul, "That's a... traffic light."

"I don't even know why that is called as that."

"Okay, you know what credit cards are for?"

"I've seen them but I don't know how they are used."

"Cash registers? Air fryer? A router?"

Taehyun's facial expression turns into a confused yet annoyed expression, "I don't know what you are talking about but please stop talking about that, I feel dumb."

"Well then, my good friend, Taehyun!" Beomgyu hops off his bed with a grin, hands placed at the side of his hips, "I will show you different places and different items tomorrow! And buy you some new clothes because you look like a child in Yeonjun-hyung's oversized clothes."

The other responds with a smile and a nod as the other took it as a yes and immediately turns around to get some clothes for Taehyun to sleep in. The thought of his crush wearing his clothes makes him feel very giddy and excited but he has to be lowkey and keep calm.

"Let's start our journey when the blue hour starts, Taehyunie," he says, internally praising himself for using a smart term for 5:30 in the morning since it is usually when the blue hour starts in their place.

"Okay, thank you, Gyu," he responds as the said person was vibrating with happiness because of the nickname, unknowing that the person behind him was smiling really wide because of the nickname he got from the older.

He hears shuffling from the bed behind him as he was getting the hoodie from his cabinet.

"Hyung, I'm going to go wash myself, okay?"

"Okay, I have your clothes right here– WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR CLOTHES OFF RIGHT HERE?!"

"Huh? It's not allowed?"

"YES, IT IS COMPLETELY RUDE!"

"... Hyung, why are you staring? Staring is rude too, right?"

"Get your ass out of my room and wash!"

* * *

Luckily for Beomgyu, bed time wasn't that eventful– minus the fact that he and Taehyun agreed to sleep at the very edge of the bed but ended up waking up with entangled arms and feet with his roommate's head is nestled on the crook of his head, snuggling closer when he tried to move away.

After almost 20 minutes of trying to go back to sleep, the younger of the two had rolled away and he took that as a sign to get out and immediately jumped out of bed, and took a 20-minute long cold shower, pretending to be okay as he woke up Taehyun after he took a shower and dressed up.

It was 2pm in the afternoon and the two of them had already spent their morning shopping around various shops in Korea, buying Taehyun a bunch of clothes for him to wear and introducing him to various products that he didn't know of.

His favorite moment was when Beomgyu decided to buy a brand new toaster since his one at his dorm was old and broken and the way Taehyun's eyes lit up as he watched the salesman test if the toaster that Beomgyu is going to buy is working or not, flinching when the toaster "popped".

If the salesman saw him look at Taehyun with a fond look, he didn't comment on it, but he sure gave Beomgyu a teasing look the moment their eyes met, which caused him to turn red.

"Uh, are you sure that I'll be okay here, hyung?" Taehyun asks as he sits in front of a chair as a girl starts combing through his locks and examining his mullet. His eyes were focused on the big and wide mirror in front of him, still not getting used to being in front of mirrors.

"Mhm hmm," Beomgyu hums, nodding along the way, "You're just going to get your hair cut, that's all. I frequent in this hair salon so there is no need to worry."

Taehyun eyes an object that we all call a hair iron as its insides turned red as it was turned on, before pouting at Beomgyu, "But I like my mullet."

"It's growing longer, you need to cut it and have your hair styled, okay?"

Taehyun huffs, "Okay, fine."

Pleased with his answer, Beomgyu walks towards the lounge to wait for Taehyun.

"How would you like your hair to be styled?" the lady asks him, still playing with his hair.

"Umm, any style that suits me, I guess," he shrugs, not knowing what to say.

"Okay, then we'll get started," she directs a customer friendly smile at him at the mirror to which Taehyun just nods. His eyes examine the things that were happening in the background via mirror, his gaze stopping at a guy with pink hair walking out of the salon.

"Wait, I think I want something done with my hair."

"Okay, let's hear it."

* * *

"Thank you for choosing us," the cashier smiles as she takes the money from Beomgyu, who just gives her a no problem.

Beomgyu was called by the cashier dor his payment after almost an hour of waiting for Taehyun, swearing that he never took this long when he went to this hair salon and was even more confused when he was told to pay more than what he usually paid to the cashier, with the cashier telling him to wait and see when he asked for a reason why.

He never pegged the place to be a scam since he had been going to the very same hair salon when he wanted something done with his hair for almost two years now. Maybe Taehyun's mullet was that bad that they took almost an hour of fixing it.

"Thank you," he hears Taehyun say to probably a hair stylist behind him and he turns back, ready to judge his newly cut and styled hair with a smirk, only to be hit with blondeblondeblonde.

Here, standing in front of him, was an angel in flesh as if this person hadn't plot to kill his entire bloodline and wizards. Taehyun was looking at him with a nervous expression on his face, his blonde bangs covering some parts of face.

He was a legit beauty and Beomgyu internally thanked the gods above that he met Taehyun because wow, the blonde hair really suited him. Is Taehyun really human?

"Um, I decided to have my hair colored, you know," he nervously says, "I don't know if I suit it– I didn't even know you have to pay more for it, I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," he gapes, still staring at him, "Hell, you are prettier than Yeonjun."

"Th-thanks?" he says, confused at the comparison that the older used but still went with it. At least he was called pretty.

The two of them exited the hair salon and went out buying street food and visited a pet shop, planning on adopting a pet but ended up leaving with him dragging Taehyun out since the younger wanted a pet snake and he doesn't want one of those wriggling noodles around his dorm, Toto would fight it.

"Hyung, this was the most fun I have gotten in years," the newly blonde besides him exclaims as he takes a bite of the hotteok that was on his hand, "I'm not joking."

"I know you aren't," he says, mirth filling his eyes as he looks at the happy boy besides him, munching on his hotteok.

The two of them had an exhausting day and so, at 5pm, they decided to go home, arms full of shopping bags.

"I never thought I could feel this much happiness in a long time," he mumbles under his breathe, soft enough that anyone else that wasn't paying attention would miss it but Beomgyu heard it, since he is always paying attention.

He continues, "I haven't really experienced any other new emotions aside from excitement, confusion, nervousness, I think, happiness... excitement again," they giggled, "I was hoping to experience more but that's about it."

"We got long days ahead, Taehyun, you can experience more emotions as you go," he replies which earned him a curious expression from the younger.

"Will you help me experience those things?"

If that didn't make Beomgyu's heart flutter (it did), then he doesn't know what will, "Of course," he answers, earning a bright smile and a nod from the younger.

It was silent for a few seconds until the blonde decided to speak up.

"Anyways, where do I live?" he asks, "Clearly your dorm can only be for one person only, where do I get to stay?"

"We'll share the dorm till' I help you understand the new world a little better and help you on your feet," he answers, a bit sad at the thought that Taehyun does not want to live with him, but shrugs it off.

After a few more talks and few more turns, they found themselves meters away from the dorms.

"Hyung, I forgot to ask you something."

"What's that?"

"Did you... really mean what you said?" he asks and the other gives him a confused look as if asking for context, "That night when you came home drunk, telling me all about me being your type."

"Oh," Beomgyu spoke dumbly, not sure how to approach this situation. He knows that the other knows that he remembers that night but he couldn't just say it outright, he's too afraid.

And so, he puts on a mask.

"I am actually clueless about that, Tyun," he laughs nervously as he rubs the back of his neck, "Sorry."

"But... last night..."

"I think I got it confused, or something? Sorry, Tyun-ah," he did his best to look apologetic and confused, heart dropping when he sees the way Taehyun's face fall.

To be honest, Beomgyu spent the whole day analyzing Taehyun, how he reacted when he leaned closer to him and how he reacted when he brushes his fingers "accidentally" against his. With Taehyun not knowing which emotions to hide, he decides to use it to his advantage to see how the younger would react.

Which was a big fail, since the other would just put on a big poker face but smile very widely at mundane things.

This is the first time he had seen him react so big and it was about last last night.

He knew for sure that the younger liked him too.

"Oh.. okay," he says and everything was silent.

When they got to the front of Beomgyu's dorm's door, Taehyun stood awkwardly behind Beomgyu as the raven took off his shoes and carried them on one of his hands and opened the door, putting one foot inside before stopping and sighing, the younger behind him getting scared.

"Sorry if things got awkward, Taehyun-ah," he hears the older say and his heart started beating faster, panicking, "I just don't remember such a thing, and for you to do such thing last night..."

He gulps, eyes getting teary as he stares at the raven's back, "I'm sorry, hyung. I thought that I remembered things correctly– maybe it was because of the mirror's magic that I was hallucinating or–"

"You are rambling."

"I know, I'm sorry," he frowns, eyes on his shoes, Beomgyu's shoes that he had borrowed, "I'll just forget this ever happened and–"

"I don't think I can keep this up anymore."

Taehyun's blood ran cold. Was it his actions that made Beomgyu this cold? He hadn't understood the new world yet, had he already did something so offensive for him to be hated already?

"I'm– I'm sorry– I–" he hiccups trying to wipe away the tears that were streaming down without his permission, "Please ignore me, my heart hurts– I don't know why– I'm–"

"You experienced another emotion, right?" he looks up to see Beomgyu grinning up at him before the older took a step towards him, putting down his shoes and bags to help wipe away the tears.

"Wh-what?" Taehyun stutters as Beomgyu chuckled, kissing his tears away as the younger squeaks at the sudden action, ears and face getting red.

He laughs at the younger's adorable reaction, "Sorry, Tyun. I couldn't resist. Guess your reaction proves that you love me, right?"

"I hate you, I fucking hate you," he scowls but not moving to remove Beomgyu's hands away from him, "I hate you so much you dried piece of scrunched up dog food, fucking spoiled butt of a salty cabbage."

He tries to pout cutely, "Aww, that's mean!"

"I wish you'd trip on your feet you rotten sack of meat shit."

"I'm sorry," he says again as he kisses his right eye, "I'll do anything you want to make it up for you crying. At least I helped you release some tears you held while you were inside that mirror, didn't I?"

The younger looked down and got quiet, which worried Beomgyu. Had he pushed his buttons too far? Was he too cruel?

His thoughts disappearing when he hears the boy mumble under his breath.

"...s ...e ...iot..."

"What did you say?"

"I said kiss me, you idiot," the other says, blushing really badly and Beomgyu couldn't help but laugh at his cuteness.

"Why are you laughing?!"

"Because you are cute."

"Shut up," he says as he turns away but says nothing as Beomgyu cups his cheeks and softly makes him turn his head towards him.

He leans close to his eye but the younger looked to the side to make him miss. He tries to kiss his forehead but he lowers his head which hit him on the mouth and he could've swore the younger snickered.

He lifted his face up to find Taehyun looking directly at the side, avoiding eye contact as he was gnawing on his lips and Beomgyu laughed, he was too adorable.

So, this is what he wanted.

"Are you sure that you're going to give me your first kiss?" he asks and Taehyun nods shyly.

He smirks, "Words, Tyunie."

"You know what I want, no need for words," he glares at the whipped man in front of him.

"Alright," Beomgyu grins as he looked at him with fond eyes, the other's glare softening.

"Taehyun-ah," he leans closer and both their eyes drift to each other's lips. Taehyun brought his hands up in front of Beomgyu's shirt as if he was going to pull him towards him.

Taehyun waited, but nothing came and so, he slowly looked up to meet with Beomgyu's eyes.

"I love you," Beomgyu says before connecting his lips with Taehyun, who happily kissed back despite being very inexperienced. The kiss felt like heaven to Taehyun and he could hear fireworks setting off in the background when there were none. It felt right, as if their lips were made for each other.

They pulled away for a few seconds before Beomgyu grabbed his shoes and bags and waddled inside, leaving a still surprised and blissed Taehyun at the front of the door.

Noticing the lack of movement behind him, he turns back and grins at the younger who had his hand touching his own lips.

"I haven't heard an "I love you too" yet," he teases, "I couldn't make you mine if I don't hear it."

That seemed to snap Taehyun out of his blissed out trance as he gave Beomgyu a playful glare.

"Get ready, hyung," he smirks as he takes off his shoes, "I'll give you a ton of I love yous that will surely make you get sick of it."

"I will never get tired of hearing you say it over and over again, Taehyun-ah," he says fondly as he watches the apple of his eye walk inside his dorm and close the door behind him.

"Stop being cheesy," he pouts before launching himself to the other and hugging him, the other not hesitating to wrap his arms around him, "I love you too, hyung."

"Now look whose being cheesy."

"Shut up, you love me anyways."

"I hate that you're right. I deserve kisses."

"Coming right up."

A ton of things happened in Beomgyu's life, only because he wished for something thrilling to happen. What he thought was the worst thing that had happened to him turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to him.

This might be a new world for Taehyun, but Beomgyu promised that he would help Taehyun with every step of the way and helping him experience more and different feelings each day.

And it all started with this one cursed mirror, maybe it wasn't so cursed after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been a wild ride, thank you to all the old and new readers who stuck by this story until the very end.
> 
> mirror, mirror, tell me that you love me, is now at it's end. thank you so much for the love and support you gave this story.
> 
> the new taegyu fic, "Bite Me, I Dare You," will be published maybe on 24 or on 25, it depends since i will also be working on a couple of my stories so that i can update them before 2020 ends.
> 
> thank you for showing me and this story love and i'll see you all in the next fic!
> 
> see you! ^^


	9. 끝

"Yeonjun-hyung!" Beomgyu calls out as he opens the door to his dorm room with Taehyun hiding behind him, unsure if he should come in or not, "We're back!"

He hears loud steps nearing the door and was surprised to see Soobin, his friend and the object of his hyung's affections, "Welcome back!"

"Hyung? What are you doing here?" he asks as he takes off his shoes and carries them inside, nudging Taehyun to do the same.

The taller hummed as he held the door for them, "Yeonjun-hyung told me to get some clothes for him right after me and Hyuka arrived her to tell him to prepare food like you said," he answers before letting out a laugh as he closing the door, "He said his clothes were stolen, how does one get his clothes stolen in the first place?"

Beomgyu was about to answer that before stopping once he realized what the other had said.

"Yeonjun-hyung always locks the door to his dorm and always brings both his original and spare keys with him," he squints his eyes at a slightly blushing Soobin, "What's going on with you two?"

Soobin lets out a nervous laugh, face turning even more red, "Ummm... that's not important, just answer my question please."

"Right, I'll be sure to grill you on later," he says before clearing up his throat," Anyways, as for your question, he can answer that," Beomgyu grins as he stepped to the side to reveal Taehyun, who had hidden behind the newly raven haired boy the moment he stepped inside.

Soobin's eyes widened in recognition as he looked at the boy who also had his eyes opened wide.

"Ah, you were the one who took my coffee!" he squeaked out as he pointed at Taehyun whose face turned red, "You better pay me back."

"I'm sorry," he replied sheepishly

Soobin turned to look at Beomgyu, "I didn't expect the person that you were chasing to be this guy who chucked my coffee," he sighs.

Beomgyu laughs, "Hey, it was self-defense from what I saw it! If I ran a little bit faster, I could have caught up to him and stopped him from taking your coffee."

"Whatever, tiny legs."

"At least I run faster than you!"

Taehyun looks at the two bickering people in confusion, feeling out of place. What did Beomgyu mean by "if he ran a bit faster?" Did he see him run away from those men? How did he find him in such a large area?"

He looks at the oversized boots on his hands, internally praising himself for managing to run without tripping or having his foot come off of one of the shows due to how big it was.

The shoes looked very dirty with all the dirt that had gotten to it when he was running, plus it had a few scratch marks on it when he accidentally scraped it on the floor of the alley when he struggled to stand up the first time he encountered with the thieves.

He felt guilty, the shoes looked fancy too. How was he supposed to pay Yeonjun back when he has no money on him? Plus, he damaged and dirtied all his clothes.

What's he going to do now?

"Hi."

His head snapped to where the voice was coming from, his eyes meeting all yellow. He looked up slightly to find the very same curly haired boy from earlier smiling at him, the yellow had been his hoodie.

"You are the guy from earlier, right?" he asked and Taehyun froze, unsure if he should respond or not. It has been quite a long time ever since he had talked to people in person. It wasn't the same when he was in the mirror at all.

Having no replies from the shorter, the guy still continued, "I'm Huening Kai but my friends call me Hyuka," he smiled a little too brightly for Taehyun's liking.

"What's your name?"

He blinks.

'Right. It's just your name, you need to converse, okay?' he mentally prepares himself before extending his shaky left hand out to which the taller immediately grabs and shakes it making him flinch slightly.

He breathes through his nose and with an exhale, he finally opens his mouth to speak.

"Taehyun," he starts before opening his mouth again, this time his lips were shaking, "Kang Taehyun."

"Yes, you talked! I mean, nice to meet you, Taehyun!" Hyuka squeaked as he snatched the shoes from Taehyun and threw them at the side, which alerted Beomgyu and scolded Hyuka for chucking the dirty shoes inside his home. The younger ignored him as he dragged Taehyun further inside the house.

Taehyun lets out a confused noise when the taller guides him to sit on the couch before walking backwards and looking at him from head to toe with wide eyes, the other's bold action making him feel shy and exposed.

"Those are... Yeonjun-hyung's clothes aren't they," he pointed out and to which he just nodded at.

Huening Kai let out a loud panicked shriek which made Taehyun cover his ears with both of his hands, taking note that sounds are much louder than when he is in the mirror or that this person just has a talent in screaming.

"Are you his fling?! I didn't know that hyung had a fling!" he shrieks which startled the two other people who had already been alarmed from the scream.

"Who is a fling?" Soobin asked before settling his eyes on Taehyun and properly looking at him and his clothes.

"O-oh..." he purses his lips, nodding at Taehyun who is now panicking because of numerous reasons.

Beomgyu saws the disappointment and hurt on Soobin's face which made him panic. He immediately runs in front of Taehyun and faces Soobin as if he were hiding the panicking boy behind his back, "Look, Yeonjun-hyung has no fling, alright?"

He stares at Beomgyu in confusion as he raises a hand and points it at Taehyun before letting it fall to the side if he was saying "but look at him."

"Hyung, this is just a major misunderstanding," he says before sighing and falling on the spot besides Taehyun, "Besides, I also misunderstood."

The other boy was about to open his mouth to reply when a delicious smell suddenly filled the air around the room. Their eyes turned when they heard humming and saw Yeonjun in a fresh set of new clothes balancing a big platter of aglio e olio on one hand and a bunch of plates with forks at the top on the other hand.

Beomgyu lowkey wished that it would fall but quickly berated himself that even if it is for the laughs, it's his stuff that would get broken and his dorm that would get dirty.

"I heard Hyuningie screaming, is everything alright?" he asks as he puts down both plates on the table in front of the couch. Just as he grabbed one of the forks, he turned around to give it to what he thought was Huening Kai but immediately flung himself over to Beomgyu when he saw the person sitting on the couch.

"You!" he says with gritted teeth as he points the fork menacingly at him, "You stole my clothes!" his eyes wandered to his trenchcoat that was big on the younger and the loose pants and turtleneck shirt on him before screaming, "My clothes! They are all dirty!"

Taehyun immediately yelps and turns red when he feels the older's hands on him, tugging the trenchcoat off him.

"Give! My! Clothes! Back!" Yeonjun punctuates every word with each and every pull he has.

Taehyun curls up on himself, hugging the clothes around him, "No! I don't have anything to wear!"

"That's not my problem, now undress!"

"This is sexual harassment! Get your hands off me!"

"You were the one who took my clothes!"

"Excuse me?! You were the one who took your clothes OFF!"

Both Beomgyu and Huening Kai were confused at the sudden ordeal and also were genuinely worried at their poor friend having a mental breakdown beside them that was chanting "he took his clothes off" again and again at his side.

"Okay, stop! Pull him away, Kai!" he says as he grabs on to Yeonjun and pulls him away from Taehyun, who is also pulled away by Huening Kai. The two glared at each other and the raven haired boy could sense the tension from the two.

Yeonjun was about to lunge at Taehyun again when the one holding him smacked his hand at the back of his head, which made the other turn and glare at him.

He glared back, "Before you continue harassing Taehyun over there, hyung, could you please tell us what happened? Soobin-hyung needs it," he adds as he jerks his thumb at their tallest who is still having a mental breakdown.

Yeonjun sighs and the other loosens his grip on him.

"Fine," he says before standing up, "But first, we need to eat. My aglio e olio is going to be cold."

* * *

"So, you're telling us," Hyuka starts before he swallows the pasta and continuing, "That you are a wizard?"

"Yes."

"And that you tried to use your wizardly power and turn invisible to escape Taehyun who wanted to tear your face."

"Yes."

"But you are–"

"–a cockalorum whose brain is far smaller than Dobby's dick."

"Yes– wait, no!" Yeonjun yells at Taehyun who only snickered while Huening Kai at the background is asking Soobin what a cockalorum is.

Soobin and Huening Kai were still quite confused at the whole situation, still thinking that everything is a prank but with Taehyun's sudden appearance and the obvious, non-playful glares he and Yeonjun are sending each other, there might be a possibility that the whole cursed mirror thing is real.

"Seriously, what have I ever done to you?"

"Sorry, I just get pissed when I see that thing on your neck," Taehyun points out before shrugging half-heartedly that the blonde had to stop himself from snapping the other's neck.

Beomgyu blinked at Yeonjun's neck before turning to look at Taehyun who was currently eating the pasta, "What thing?"

"Hm?"

"On hyung's neck? There's nothing there."

"Oh," Taehyun answers as he twirls his fork around the pasta, "You guys can't see it since he is currently hiding it and because you weren't cursed like me. Show it to them."

"I have a name, you know!"

"Ah yes, the fool."

"Trust me, hyung. This guy takes a while to warm up and it's a pain," he comforts the steaming blonde as he sighs in relief that the younger's rash and savage attitude has come back. Truth be told, he prefers the snarky Taehyun than the silent and obedient one.

Yeonjun sighs, "I can see that, plus he hates my guts because of my wizard lineage even though I am a weakling," he says before shoving a fork full of pasta inside his mouth.

"It's not that I hate you and your lineage anymore though," Taehyun mumbles silently, enough for them all to hear if they were paying attention.

"What changed your mind, Taehyun?" Soobin asks, no longer in a mental breakdown, "Yeonjunie said that you were spouting things about hating wizards and their line and Kangs and stuff."

The raven hummed as he looked at Yeonjun, whose cheeks were tinted in a soft pink color right after Soobin had let out the nickname, looking at Soobin with fondness. The older's head suddenly snapped to his direction and raised an eyebrow in confusion, expecting an insult.

"He said... things," he answers as the older stared at him wide-eyed, surprised that he managed to change the young savage's mind, "Plus, when I left the dorm, I experienced a different world out there... so that's that."

"I see."

"You know, kid," the blonde smirked, not in a mocking way but in a teasing way, "You might not be so bad after all."

"Shut up, ninnyhammer."

"Ninnyhammer– you sound like an old man!"

Beomgyu's eyes looked at Taehyun who is currently having a friendly banter with Yeonjun with a soft gaze. He couldn't believe that the younger was really here, beside him, and not inside a mirror that divided their worlds.

Is this real? Are they really sitting in his living room and eating his hyung's aglio e olio as his friends look at Taehyun like he was there. They looked at him with smiles and not with a confused expression like what they mostly did when he was still in the mirror.

Without thinking twice, he reached out and poked the younger's cheeks which had surprised the younger and had him immediately turning to face him.

"Do you have a proper explanation as to why you are poking my cheek?" he asks, looking at him questioningly.

Beomgyu was flustered, he had suddenly reached over and poked his cheek. Oh well, he should be honest, right?

"It doesn't feel that you are real here beside me and not inside some stupid mirror," he answers, gulping down his nervousness. He can feel his friends teasing eyes on him, "I never thought the day would come that we'd be sitting next to each other and eating Yeonjun-hyung's delicious pasta."

The younger went silent and he internally panicked. Did he say anything wrong? Should he retract his words and say it was just a joke? What should he d–

"I feel the same way," Taehyun spoke which had halted Beomgyu's train of thoughts, "Though the world is new to me now and I am very out of touch with what is happening in this era, everything feels unreal."

"I would want to live a normal life and forget the grudges I have," he smiles at Beomgyu which made him almost drop his plate, "I am still very... off in feeling and expressing different emotions since I've lost touch in this sort of human mechanism but I will try."

"Dude, you speak like a robot," Hyuka chimes, looking at him with a wow'ed expression, "Your words are so fancy."

"Well, what can you expect from an old man?" Yeonjun teases, Huening Kai laughs along with Beomgyu as Soobin studies Taehyun, still unsure if this is really real.

Taehyun scoffs, "I'm still the same person as I was before I was trapped inside that damn mirror, I'm still young."

"Young enough to be someone's grandpa."

"How does that make any sense?!"

"Okay, calm down everyone, let's eat in peace– NO, TAEHYUN! DROP THE FORK!"

* * *

After eating and washing the dishes, the group huddled once more in the living room as they talked about what life was during Taehyun's time and educate him about what's new in today's era in which Yeonjun had fun teasing him with because he is "too old to even get it," which made them take several breaks to prevent the younger from putting the older into a headlock.

Yeonjun showed the his neck tattoo and made it visible and invisible so that the two tallest member of their friend group can believe them now. Though Hyuka was already believing everything they are saying, Soobin is still a bit wary and confused but decides to give it a chance.

Beomgyu had grilled Soobin and Yeonjun for information regarding Yeonjun's dorm key to which they both revealed that they had started dating in the morning after what had happened last night, when Yeonjun drunkenly went to Soobin and Huening Kai's shared dorm after the party, thinking that it was his dorm, and began mumbling how soft and loveable Soobin was when said person opened the door to his dorm. He had drunkenly confessed to Soobin (which made Beomgyu sneeze for some reason unknown) before passing out.

Yeonjun ended up waking up early in the day in Soobin's bed and freaked out when he found the love of his life sleeping next to him and tried to sneak out but was dragged back in by Soobin who was had awoken from the movements and told him everything that happened last night before they gushed out all their feelings and agreed to date, all the while Huening Kai was cluelessly sleeping even until Yeonjun sneaked out of their dorms.

Soobin and Yeonjun practically tried to stop both Huening Kai and Beomgyu from strangling them as they both screamed betrayal as Taehyun watched them with embarrassment in his eyes, wondering why he liked Beomgyu.

Yeonjun and Taehyun both cleared up what had happened and the two reconciled, putting what happened at the past behind them though the blonde told the raven that he has to pay for wrecking his clothes– which was a joke but the younger insisted he would buy back someday, since he had almost drove a large piece of glass through him and destroyed his clothes.

Was it enough to pay Yeonjun back? No.

Was it enough for Yeonjun, though? Yes, the older seemed to develop a soft spot for the scary younger and even told him that it's fine if he wouldn't pay him back but the stubborn Taehyun insisted.

After Yeonjun showing proof to both Huening Kai and Soobin that he can turn invisible and having his clothes fall down again, the trio went home with a red-faced Soobin who looks like he believed everything now, bidding goodbye to Beomgyu and Taehyun, promising that they'll invite them out for hang outs soon.

The two of them walked back to Beomgyu's bedroom and suddenly, the air around them became thick and hot.

It was hella' awkward.

The two stood in different corners of the room, staring at each other silently, not knowing what to do. It had been different when Taehyun was still in the mirror, but now it was real life and they are too shy to do anything.

"Umm," Beomgyu started, "Yeonjun-hyung cleaned up the glass and mirror."

"I can see that," Taehyun replies, smiling as he took off the trench coat, leaving him on Yeonjun's baggy sweatshirt and loose pants.

The shorter raven looks around Beomgyu's room and smiles, earning a confused look from the other.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I'm smiling at the fact that your room looks even worst outside the mirr– I'm kidding!" he laughs as the other boy chucks a pillow at him with him catching it and throwing it at him with two times the force.

"It's just that, I didn't really expect myself being able to see the rest of your room as I stand in front of you," he continues, "In reality."

"Hyun, you are out of the mirror and you being cursed inside it– that's in the past, forget about it," he pouts, flopping down on the bed, "It makes me feel sad if you bring up your mirror days."

Taehyun squints his eyes at Beomgyu.

"If Yeonjun-hyung didn't tear off the seal that day–"

Beomgyu throws another pillow, only to have it getting blown back at his face before putting it down on the bed with a huff, "Fine, fine. I was too scared of letting you out because of your revenge plan or something."

"I couldn't blame you for that," he shrugs as he sits besides Beomgyu on the bed, "But I got to be thankful for hyung. If it wasn't for him, I might have still been in the mirror yelling curses at you."

"Yeah, and I might be at the bar right now getting myself wasted with Junie."

Taehyun blinks and then smirks at Beomgyu, who turns his head at the other nervously though not knowing why.

"Speaking of wasted, you said some mighty fine things last night," his smirk turns into a grin and Beomgyu could feel his heart stop, "We need to talk about that," he continued, not minding the scared walnut besides him.

His brain wracked around for memories of that night but he couldn't remember anything, to no avail.

"Wh-what did I say? You said that I said stupid things... right?"

The younger hums, putting a finger on his chin and looking up as if he was really thinking about it, "Well, you said things about not having a type and then ended up with me being your type," he teases.

As if the hamster on Beomgyu's brain-wheel started running full speed, all the memories that his brain suppressed that night flooded back to him.

He wished that the hamster in his brain hadn't ran and made him remember because he now wants to dig a hole and bury himself in there.

"Uhhh..." he spoke dumbly, noting how his face suddenly went warm and how the grin on Taehyun's lips grew wider. He knew that the other knew that he remembered and so he cannot lie about not being able to remember it.

And so, he did the only thing he could possibly do.

He tried to roll towards the end of the bed and tried to make a break for it to the door but the other had put his hands at both sides of Beomgyu's head, looming over him as he successfully trapped the panicking newly raven haired boy.

"I need answers, Gyu," he says with a teasing smile and tone, "Didn't you say that you wanted to touch this pretty face?"

"Oh my god– stop before I tell Yeonjun-hyung to shove you back in the mirror," he hissed as he covered his blushing face.

Taehyun laughed as he removed the older's hands and pinned it to the side which made the older tilt his head to the side to not look at him in the eyes, "We're cool, I know that he won't do that."

"Taehyun, do you know what you are doing right now?" Beomgyu panics as he tries to get out of the younger one's grip.

"I'm pinning you down," he answers in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yes, but do you KNOW what you are doing to me?!"

Taehyun gives him a weird look before leaning away from him, sitting down properly and retracting his hands which made the older able to sit up and give him a scandalized look.

"Did that hurt or offend you? I thought I was being playful..." he asked, innocent eyes staring into his accusatory ones, "I saw two friends do the same thing as he bent his friend on the bed as his other friends laughed at them– Jackson and Bam were their names? I don't know, it's been a long time."

"No, Hyun. You got that wr–"

His eyes widened as if he realized something, "Ah, I should have probably bent you like that, right?"

"What do you mean bent– HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY LEGS– WAAAH!" he screeched as he was yet pushed to his back as his legs were brought up on pushed down towards his face like he was doing yoga.

While it was a bit relaxing, he was panicking when he sees Taehyun looming over him with a playful smile that seemed to make him want to just spread his legs right then and there.

But of course, he has his own conscience and his conscience tells him to stop being a dumb fuck and push Taehyun off him.

He smirks at Taehyun before bringing all of his weight and power to his thighs and push the raven down. The said person was surprised at his counterattack and tried to push it back but the older's leg power was too much and he was immediately pushed down to the bed, his back pressing up against the softness of the mattress as Beomgyu sits up, effectively straddling Taehyun.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" the younger beneath him laughs as he tries to regain his breath from trying to push the older's stronger thighs away from him earlier.

The younger snakes his hand upwards as he tries to sneakily push the older away but failed when the older saw his hands and immediately pinned them down on the bed.

"Yeah, it was fun," Beomgyu grinned, panting, "But you shouldn't do things like that to me, Hyun."

"Why?"

Beomgyu didn't answer as he continues to stare at the beauty beneath him.

'So this is what you see when you are on top of them,' he thinks, 'God, he's so pretty.'

The grin on his face falls as his gaze zeroes in to every part of Taehyun's face, his eyes, his nose, his cheeks, his lips– _his goddamn lips_.

"Hyung?"

"Hm?" he answers, eyes not leaving his plump lips as he licks his own lips unconsciously, not knowing that the younger beneath him was starting to feel flustered and panicked.

"The tension is so thick here," he says in his panicked haze and Beomgyu leaps out of Taehyun's thighs, finally coming to his senses.

Taehyun was slightly disappointed at the loss of contact but the sudden tension that he felt was too overwhelming like he would do something that he would regret if he would stay in that position longer.

Was he supposed to feel that way or was he really that out of current world's loop that he doesn't know if that was acceptable or not.

But judging from the expression of the boy infront of him, the other was flustered too unless he read him wrong.

"You..." Beomgyu started, "You shouldn't say things like that in the heat of the moment, you know."

"What do you mean heat of the moment? Is that some new language you future humans made?"

"No, it's–" he started but stopped, "You don't know anything, don't you?"

Taehyun nods with a pout, "I'm very out of the loop of what's new in the current time, how can I possibly know what that is? I know what a laptop is but I don't know what those red yellow green blinking bulbs are in the streets."

Beomgyu blinks, this guy is really an old soul, "That's a... traffic light."

"I don't even know why that is called as that."

"Okay, you know what credit cards are for?"

"I've seen them but I don't know how they are used."

"Cash registers? Air fryer? A router?"

Taehyun's facial expression turns into a confused yet annoyed expression, "I don't know what you are talking about but please stop talking about that, I feel dumb."

"Well then, my good friend, Taehyun!" Beomgyu hops off his bed with a grin, hands placed at the side of his hips, "I will show you different places and different items tomorrow! And buy you some new clothes because you look like a child in Yeonjun-hyung's oversized clothes."

The other responds with a smile and a nod as the other took it as a yes and immediately turns around to get some clothes for Taehyun to sleep in. The thought of his crush wearing his clothes makes him feel very giddy and excited but he has to be lowkey and keep calm.

"Let's start our journey when the blue hour starts, Taehyunie," he says, internally praising himself for using a smart term for 5:30 in the morning since it is usually when the blue hour starts in their place.

"Okay, thank you, Gyu," he responds as the said person was vibrating with happiness because of the nickname, unknowing that the person behind him was smiling really wide because of the nickname he got from the older.

He hears shuffling from the bed behind him as he was getting the hoodie from his cabinet.

"Hyung, I'm going to go wash myself, okay?"

"Okay, I have your clothes right here– WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR CLOTHES OFF RIGHT HERE?!"

"Huh? It's not allowed?"

"YES, IT IS COMPLETELY RUDE!"

"... Hyung, why are you staring? Staring is rude too, right?"

"Get your ass out of my room and wash!"

* * *

Luckily for Beomgyu, bed time wasn't that eventful– minus the fact that he and Taehyun agreed to sleep at the very edge of the bed but ended up waking up with entangled arms and feet with his roommate's head is nestled on the crook of his head, snuggling closer when he tried to move away.

After almost 20 minutes of trying to go back to sleep, the younger of the two had rolled away and he took that as a sign to get out and immediately jumped out of bed, and took a 20-minute long cold shower, pretending to be okay as he woke up Taehyun after he took a shower and dressed up.

It was 2pm in the afternoon and the two of them had already spent their morning shopping around various shops in Korea, buying Taehyun a bunch of clothes for him to wear and introducing him to various products that he didn't know of.

His favorite moment was when Beomgyu decided to buy a brand new toaster since his one at his dorm was old and broken and the way Taehyun's eyes lit up as he watched the salesman test if the toaster that Beomgyu is going to buy is working or not, flinching when the toaster "popped".

If the salesman saw him look at Taehyun with a fond look, he didn't comment on it, but he sure gave Beomgyu a teasing look the moment their eyes met, which caused him to turn red.

"Uh, are you sure that I'll be okay here, hyung?" Taehyun asks as he sits in front of a chair as a girl starts combing through his locks and examining his mullet. His eyes were focused on the big and wide mirror in front of him, still not getting used to being in front of mirrors.

"Mhm hmm," Beomgyu hums, nodding along the way, "You're just going to get your hair cut, that's all. I frequent in this hair salon so there is no need to worry."

Taehyun eyes an object that we all call a hair iron as its insides turned red as it was turned on, before pouting at Beomgyu, "But I like my mullet."

"It's growing longer, you need to cut it and have your hair styled, okay?"

Taehyun huffs, "Okay, fine."

Pleased with his answer, Beomgyu walks towards the lounge to wait for Taehyun.

"How would you like your hair to be styled?" the lady asks him, still playing with his hair.

"Umm, any style that suita me, I guess," he shrugs, not knowing what to say.

"Okay, then we'll get started," she directs a customer friendly smile at him at the mirror to which Taehyun just nods. His eyes examine the things that were happening in the background via mirror, his gaze stopping at a guy with pink hair walking out of the salon.

"Wait, I think I want something done with my hair."

"Okay, let's hear it."

* * *

"Thank you for choosing us," the cashier smiles as she takes the money from Beomgyu, who just gives her a no problem.

Beomgyu was called by the cashier dor his payment after almost an hour of waiting for Taehyun, swearing that he never took this long when he went to this hair salon and was even more confused when he was told to pay more than what he usually paid to the cashier, with the cashier telling him to wait and see when he asked for a reason why.

He never pegged the place to be a scam since he had been going to the very same hair salon when he wanted something done with his hair for almost two years now. Maybe Taehyun's mullet was that bad that they took almost an hour of fixing it.

"Thank you," he hears Taehyun say to probably a hair stylist behind him and he turns back, ready to judge his newly cut and styled hair with a smirk, only to be hit with blondeblondeblonde.

Here, standing in front of him, was an angel in flesh as if this person hadn't plot to kill his entire bloodline and wizards. Taehyun was looking at him with a nervous expression on his face, his blonde bangs covering some parts of face.

He was a legit beauty and Beomgyu internally thanked the gods above that he met Taehyun because wow, the blonde hair really suited him. Is Taehyun really human?

"Um, I decided to have my hair colored, you know," he nervously says, "I don't know if I suit it– I didn't even know you have to pay more for it, I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," he gapes, still staring at him, "Hell, you are prettier than Yeonjun."

"Th-thanks?" he says, confused at the comparison that the older used but still went with it. At least he was called pretty.

The two of them exited the hair salon and went out buying street food and visited a pet shop, planning on adopting a pet but ended up leaving with him dragging Taehyun out since the younger wanted a pet snake and he doesn't want one of those wriggling noodles around his dorm, Toto would fight it.

"Hyung, this was the most fun I have gotten in years," the newly blonde besides him exclaims as he takes a bite of the hotteok that was on his hand, "I'm not joking."

"I know you aren't," he says, mirth filling his eyes as he looks at the happy boy besides him, munching on his hotteok.

The two of them had an exhausting day and so, at 5pm, they decided to go home, arms full of shopping bags.

"I never thought I could feel this much happiness in a long time," he mumbles under his breathe, soft enough that anyone else that wasn't paying attention would miss it but Beomgyu heard it, since he is always paying attention.

He continues, "I haven't really experienced any other new emotions aside from excitement, confusion, nervousness, I think, happiness... excitement again," they giggled, "I was hoping to experience more but that's about it."

"We got long days ahead, Taehyun, you can experience more emotions as you go," he replies which earned him a curious expression from the younger.

"Will you help me experience those things?"

If that didn't make Beomgyu's heart flutter (it did), then he doesn't know what will, "Of course," he answers, earning a bright smile and a nod from the younger.

It was silent for a few seconds until the blonde decided to speak up.

"Anyways, where do I live?" he asks, "Clearly your dorm can only be for one person only, where do I get to stay?"

"We'll share the dorm till' I help you understand the new world a little better and help you on your feet," he answers, a bit sad at the thought that Taehyun does not want to live with him, but shrugs it off.

After a few more talks and few more turns, they found themselves meters away from the dorms.

"Hyung, I forgot to ask you something."

"What's that?"

"Did you... really mean what you said?" he asks and the other gives him a confused look as if asking for context, "That night when you came home drunk, telling me all about me being your type."

"Oh," Beomgyu spoke dumbly, not sure how to approach this situation. He knows that the other knows that he remembers that night but he couldn't just say it outright, he's too afraid.

And so, he puts on a mask.

"I am actually clueless about that, Tyun," he laughs nervously as he rubs the back of his neck, "Sorry."

"But... last night..."

"I think I got it confused, or something? Sorry, Tyun-ah," he did his best to look apologetic and confused, heart dropping when he sees the way Taehyun's face fall.

To be honest, Beomgyu spent the whole day analyzing Taehyun, how he reacted when he leaned closer to him and how he reacted when he brushes his fingers "accidentally" against his. With Taehyun not knowing which emotions to hide, he decides to use it to his advantage to see how the younger would react.

Which was a big fail, since the other would just put on a big poker face but smile very widely at mundane things.

This is the first time he had seen him react so big and it was about last last night.

He knew for sure that the younger liked him too.

"Oh.. okay," he says and everything was silent.

When they got to the front of Beomgyu's dorm's door, Taehyun stood awkwardly behind Beomgyu as the raven took off his shoes and carried them on one of his hands and opened the door, putting one foot inside before stopping and sighing, the younger behind him getting scared.

"Sorry if things got awkward, Taehyun-ah," he hears the older say and his heart started beating faster, panicking, "I just don't remember such a thing, and for you to do such thing last night..."

He gulps, eyes getting teary as he stares at the raven's back, "I'm sorry, hyung. I thought that I remembered things correctly– maybe it was because of the mirror's magic that I was hallucinating or–"

"You are rambling."

"I know, I'm sorry," he frowns, eyes on his shoes, Beomgyu's shoes that he had borrowed, "I'll just forget this ever happened and–"

"I don't think I can keep this up anymore."

Taehyun's blood ran cold. Was it his actions that made Beomgyu this cold? He hadn't understood the new world yet, had he already did something so offensive for him to be hated already?

"I'm– I'm sorry– I–" he hiccups trying to wipe away the tears that were streaming down without his permission, "Please ignore me, my heart hurts– I don't know why– I'm–"

"You experienced another emotion, right?" he looks up to see Beomgyu grinning up at him before the older took a step towards him, putting down his shoes and bags to help wipe away the tears.

"Wh-what?" Taehyun stutters as Beomgyu chuckled, kissing his tears away as the younger squeaks at the sudden action, ears and face getting red.

He laughs at the younger's adorable reaction, "Sorry, Tyun. I couldn't resist. Guess your reaction proves that you love me, right?"

"I hate you, I fucking hate you," he scowls but not moving to remove Yeonjun's hands away from him, "I hate you so much you dried piece of scrunched up dog food, fucking spoiled butt of a salty cabbage."

He tries to pout cutely, "Aww, that's mean!"

"I wish you'd trip on your feet you rotten sack of meat shit."

"I'm sorry," he says again as he kisses his right eye, "I'll do anything you want to make it up for you crying. At least I helped you release some tears you held while you were inside that mirror, didn't I?"

The younger looked down and got quiet, which worried Beomgyu. Had he pushed his buttons too far? Was he too cruel?

His thoughts disappearing when he hears the boy mumble under his breath.

"...s ...e ...iot..."

"What did you say?"

"I said kiss me, you idiot," the other says blushing really badly and Beomgyu couldn't help but laugh at his cuteness.

"Why are you laughing?!"

"Because you are cute."

"Shut up," he says as he turns away but says nothing as Beomgyu cups his cheeks and softly makes him turn his head towards him.

He leans close to his eye but the younger looked to the side to make him miss. He tries to kiss his forehead but he lowers his head which hit him on the mouth and he could've swore the younger snickered.

He lifted his face up to find Taehyun looking directly at the side, avoiding eye contact as he was gnawing on his lips and Beomgyu laughed, he was too adorable.

So, this is what he wanted.

"Are you sure that you're going to give me your first kiss?" he asks and Taehyun nods shyly.

He smirks, "Words, Tyunie."

"You know what I want, no need for words," he glares at the whipped man in front of him.

"Alright," Beomgyu grins as he looked at him with fond eyes, the other's glare softening.

"Taehyun-ah," he leans closer and both their eyes drift to each other's lips. Taehyun brought his hands up in front of Beomgyu's shirt as if he was going to pull him towards him.

Taehyun waited, but nothing came and so, he slowly looked up to meet with Beomgyu's eyes.

"I love you," Beomgyu says before connecting his lips with Taehyun, who happily kissed back despite being very inexperienced. The kiss felt like heaven to Taehyun and he could hear fireworks setting off in the background when there were none. It felt right, as if their lips were made for each other.

They pulled away for a few seconds before Beomgyu grabbed his shoes and bags and waddled inside, leaving a still surprised and blissed Taehyun at the front of the door.

Noticing the lack of movement behind him, he turns back and grins at the younger who had his hand touching his own lips.

"I haven't heard an "I love you too" yet," he teases, "I couldn't make you mine if I don't hear it."

That seemed to snap Taehyun out of his blissed out trance as he gave Beomgyu a playful glare.

"Get ready, hyung," he smirks as he takes off his shoes, "I'll give you a ton of I love yous that will surely make you get sick of it."

"I will never get tired of hearing you say it over and over again, Taehyun-ah," he says fondly as he watches the apple of his eye walk inside his dorm and close the door behind him.

"Stop being cheesy," he pouts before launching himself to the other and hugging him, the other not hesitating to wrap his arms around him, "I love you too, hyung."

"Now look whose being cheesy."

"Shut up, you love me anyways."

"I hate that you're right. I deserve kisses."

"Coming right up."

A ton of things happened in Beomgyu's life, only because he wished for something thrilling to happen. What he thought was the worst thing that had happened to him turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to him.

This might be a new world for Taehyun, but Beomgyu promised that he would help Taehyun with every step of the way and helping him experience more and different feelings each day.

And it all started with this one cursed mirror, maybe it wasn't so cursed after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been a wild ride, thank you to all the old and new readers who stuck by this story until the very end.
> 
> mirror, mirror, tell me that you love me, is now at it's end. thank you so much for the love and support you gave this story.
> 
> thank you for showing me and this story love and i'll see you all in the next fic!
> 
> see you! ^^
> 
> also stream blue hour because it's a bop.

**Author's Note:**

> hello! welcome to another one of my (hopefully not a flop) chaptered fic! this fic was inspired by me staring at the mirror in boredom and thinking what would happen if my reflection would talk to me and/or some other person would show itself inside the mirror.
> 
> and i swear that i didnt come up with this fic while i was tryna play rock paper scissors with my reflection—
> 
> kudos and comments are appreciated! thank you for reading this story! 고마워! ^^


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